REESE    LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

Received ^fC*^&^r€8^ 

Accessions  No.^I'jS.j^SS^      Shelf  No 

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>     •  »    .  v 


THE    IDLE    WORD 


SHOUT 


CUT  OF  SPEECH,  AMi  ITS  EMPLOYMEKT  \$ 
CONVERSATION. 


BY 

EDWARD  HJLBURN,  D.D. 

rBRBENDART   OF  BT.  !»AV  I  IOP  OF  OXKOBD,  AND  OIHI 

OF  HER  MAJESTY'S   •  N    OHD1WABT. 

•*  As  alphabotsjn  kpry  employ, 

r  alter  hour,  u|p  yeirin!'  ' 
;n_'  \Mih  :t"ri 
Those  seeds  of  s<  »' : 

.ruage  in  the  moiuh  of  the  adult 
(Witness  its  btdgniflcaill  result) 
Tooot:  "fplay, 

A  toy  to  sport  with,  ana  pass  time  away. 
•  *  *  * 

:•  of  human  tb 
r  use  thee  as  they  ought ! 
Bat  ail  shall  give  accoant  of  every  wrong, 
Who  daro  dliwflB        HM*4he  tongue." — Cowpzb. 


university! 


:\V      YORK: 
D.      A  PPL  ETON     AND      COMPANY, 

•448     &     445     BROADWAY. 
18C6. 


5 


^ 


J 


IN     MEMORY 


OF  THE   LATE 


RIGHT   HON.    HENRY  GOULBIJRN,  MP., 

WHO    HAS    PASSED    TO    HIS    REST 

SINCE   THIS   TREATISE 

ON     TOE     GOVERNMENT     OP     THE     TONGUE, 

A    GRACE   WHICH    HE   SINGULARLY 

EXEMPLIFIED, 

WAS   FIRST   INSCRIBED   TO   HIM. 


PEEF ACE 


Tii;  reader  of  this  little  Book  will  soon  discover 
from  the  style  adopted  in  parts  of  it,  that  the  sub- 
stance of  the  several  Chapters  li:is  been  delivered  in 
the  form  of  Sermons.  But  the  throwing  of  these 
Sermons  into  the  form  of  short  Religious  Essays  has 
i  me  the  opportunity  of  introducing  matter 
ununited  for  the  Pulpit,  and  of  erasing  much  which 
had  only  a  special  reference  to  the  circumstances 
and  temptations  of  my  own  flock.  At  the  same 
time,  I  have  frit  unwilling  (in  this,  as  in  a  former 
publication)  to  omit  entirely  all  practical  addrefi 
and  appeals  of  a  devotional  character,  however  out 
of  pi  -sages  may  seem  to  be  in  an  Est 

For  indeed  I  feel  that  all  exclusively  speculative 
treatment  of  Religious  Subjects  (and  specially  of  a 


6  Preface, 

subject  having  so  close  a  bearing  upon  practice,  as 
that  with  which  the  following  Pages  deal)  is  to  be 
avoided.  We  do  not  think  on  these  subjects  aright, 
unless  our  minds  are  led  on  from,  the  theory  of  them 
to  the  influence  which  they  ought  to  exercise  upon 
our  practice, — unless  we  allow  them  to  stir  within 
us  the  sentiments  and  aspirations  of  devotion.  Nor, 
except  we  view  them  under  this  light,  are  we  safe 
from  erroneous  conclusions  respecting  them.  For 
right  conclusions  on  Religious  subjects  cannot  be 
formed  by  those  who  speculate  upon  them  in  a 
wrong,  or  in  a  defective,  spirit. 

To  some,  I  fear,  the  Rules  of  Conversation  here 
proposed  may  appear  too  strict,  and  even  impossible 
to  be  carried  out.  May  I  request  that  such  Readers 
will  consider,  before  they  reject  the  Rules,  what  is 
said  in  Chapter  VII.  on  Words  of  Innocent  Recrea- 
tion ? 

I  may  have  erred  doubtless  in  some  of  my  appli- 
cations of  it  to  practice, — but  I  cannot  see  my 
way  to  evade  the  general  principle,  that  words,  to 
redeem  themselves  from  the  charge  of  being  idle, 
must  fulfil  some  one  of  the  ends  which  words  were 
designed  to  fulfil.  These  ends  are  indicated  at 
length  in  the  body  of  the  Work,  and  it  only  remains 
for  me  to  say,  that  a  wider  scope  should  possibly  be 


((UNIVERSIT 

given  to  the  term,  u innocent  n,u  Man  it 

was  <  i  with  the  nature  of  :i  reli 

rth,      A  great   man)  which  oan- 

be  justly  called  witty,  or  Inn  ad 

Here  Ihe  burdens  of  life,  and  to  tighten  the 

•  with  I  gleam  of  merriment ;  nor  would  it  be 

iter  into  any  oaelbJ  conversation  with- 
out passing  throngh  the  preliminarj  porch  of  lighter 
remarks,  and  repartees  upon  ordinary  topics.  It* 
sneh  things  v  hided,  conversation  would  lose 

isc  and  gaiety,  and  with  those   its  power  of 
ihing  the  mind.     To  preserve  this  power  (which 

•  always  to  attach  to  it),  while  at  the  same 
time  guarding  against  empty  words,  and  the  en- 
croachment of  a  spirit  of  unwatchfulness,  is  doubt- 
less an  arduous  task, — one  of  the  most  arduous 
perhaps  winch  the  Christian  has  to  achieve;  but  it 
is  our  encouragement  and  consolation  to  know  that 
cur  Merciful  Lord  never  commands  impossibilities, 
and  offers  us  not  only  the  guidance  of  general  prin- 
ciples in  His  Word,  but  also  Grace  and  Light  to 
direct  the  individual  conscience,  in  its  attempts  to 
apply  those  principles  to  the  conduct  of  daily  life, 

B,  at  G. 


CONTENTS 


OHAPTKB   I. 

THE   CONNEXION   OF  SPEECH  WITH   REASON. 

Our  Lord's  warning  against  idle  words— The  Old  Testament  warning 
on  the  same  subject,  and  its  position  in  the  Decalogue— the  indifference 
of  words  has  a  strong  hold  upon  the  mind,  even  of  religious  people— 
Probablo  moral  effects  of  the  attempt  to  rectify  our  words— Importance 
of  words  deduced  from  the  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Season— The  fact 
of  this  connexion— Inability  of  inanimate  Nature  to  speak— Passionate 
appeals  to  Nature  not  responded  to — The  rational  creature's  response  by 
Prayer  (which  is  Speech)  to  God's  appeal— Inability  of  animated  Nature 
to  speak — Animals  can  express  only  feeling,  and  not  intelligence,  by 
means  of  sound— The  song  of  birds  a  thing  of  the  same  class  with  Instru- 
mental music — The  wonderful  amount  of  intelligence  conveyed  In  a  com- 
mon-place direction  or  instruction— Prayer  and  Praise  the  highest  exer- 
cise  of  Speech— Consequent  degradation  of  Speech  by  low  or  frivolous 
employment  of  It— the  dignity  of  singing  the  Praises  of  God,  as  an  exer- 
cise which  combines  both  intelligence  and  feeling— Singing  associated  by 
the  Inspired  Writers  with  Glory— Conclusion, 17 

NOTE. 
On  certain  appearances  resembling  Speech  in  mHwi*]*,         ...    82 
1* 


10  Contents. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   CONNEXION   OP   SPEECH   WITH  REASON. 

PAGE 
Grounds  and  manner  of  the  connexion,  the  subject  of  the  present 
Chapter— We  find  the  faculty  of  Speech  in  exercise,  when  Adam  names 
the  animals — Why  are  we  never  informed  of  man's  endowment  with  this 
faculty  ?— Because  the  gift  of  language  is  involved  in  the  gift  of  a  rational 
soul,  as  colours  are  involved  in  the  light — Impropriety  in  supposing  the 
names  conferred  by  Adam  to  have  been  arbitrary— What  is  implied  in  the 
hypothesis  that  the  names  designated  the  properties  of  the  various  ani- 
mals, viz. :  the  mental  processes  of  1,  Observation ;  2,  Comparison ;  8, 
Classification — Classification  the  great  characteristic  of  the  Eeason — 
Shown  from  its  being  the  special  endowment  of  superior  minds — Lan- 
guage expresses  the  classifications  of  the  Eeason — in  the  every-day  em- 
ployment of  words,  no  one  thinks  of  mental  processes  which  gave  birth 
to  them — Christ,  as  the  Antitype  of  Adam,  giving  names  to  the  Apostles 
— The  probable  meaning  of  the  name  Boanerges — Love,  and  impetuosity 
in  behalf  of  the  person  loved,  two  sides  of  the  same  character— Digression 
on  the  spurious  charity  of  the  present  day — Why  the  naming  of  the  stars 
should  be  an  attribute  of  the  Divine  Being — Our  Lord  sees  our  characters 
— What  names  would  He  bestow  upon  us,  as  significant  of  them  ?    .       .39 

NOTE. 
On  Classification  as  the  great  function  of  the  Eeason,  ....    55 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  HEAVENLY   ANALOGY   OF   THE   CONNEXION   OF   SPEECH   WITH 
REASON. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity  can  never  be  thoroughly  ap- 
prehended by  the  finite  mind— Partial  glimpses  into  its  significance 
attainable— Eeason  and  Speech  closely  intertwined— Eecapitulation— 


ftterUs.  11 

TAQU 

1  Mm  i  nctnoaa  of  Season  and  Speech— the  first  teen  without  the  second— 
Impossibility  of  saying  whether  Reason  or  Speech  is  the  Mi 
appear  to  he  twin  faculties,  though  <li.-t  met— Man  mad*  in  the  Image  of 
God— this  Image  stands  in  the  mind— this  would  warrant  us  In  e\ 
ing  to  find  in  the  mind  some  ad  umbra:                                          -The 
8econd  Person  of  tho  Blessed  Trinity  Is  called  :                      hutnttoaof 
the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  by  the  conclusions  which  wa  have  arrived  at 
Reason  and  Speech— 1!                                "God  is  Love" 
Qm  iioiiun  of  mure  than  One  IVmon  In  the  Godhead- 
Address  to  young  men  on  the  <lisc<. virus  of  consistency  and  beauty  in 
tho  doc  t:                                by  those  who  patiently  wait  for  lL'ht  b 
study  of   God's  Word— Dignity  conferred  WfiOM  Speech  by  Christ's 
having  assumed  the  title  of  the  Word (R 


OHAPTBB  IV. 

AX    IDLE   WOBD   DEFINED   FROM   THE   DECALOGUE. 

Large  proportion  of  Scriptural  precept  directed  against  sins  of  the 
tongue — How  this  is  an  incidental  evidence  of  Scripture's  having  como 
from  a  supernatural  source — The  tongue  symptomatic  of  the  moral  state 
—Serious  derangement  in  tho  natural  constitution  of  all  bodies  produced 
by  the  most  trifling  causes — Analogous  mischief  done  by  words  in  the 
moral  system— The  Decalogue  a  summary  of  tho  principles  of  human 
duty— One  commandment  in  each  Table  directed  against  sins  of  the 
tongue — Extreme  form  of  the  6in  forbidden  by  tho  Ninth  Command- 
ment—Principle of  the  Ninth  Commandment— The  value  of  a  good  name 
—Maxim  of  St  Francis  of  Sales  on  this  subject— "Evil  speaking"  as 
well  as  "  slandering  "  forbidden  by  the  commandment— Reasons  why 
"  evil  speaking"  can  hardly  escape  being  false— What  the  hearers  gather 
from  tho  allegation  of  a  fact  to  our  neighbour's  discredit— The  mischief 
of  talebearing— if  universally  practised,  it  would  subvert  trust  between 
man  and  man — General  rule,  seldom  (if  ever)  to  fpeak  of  our  neighbour's 


12  Contents. 

PAGE 

character  and  conduct — Qualifications  with  which  the  general  rule  must 
be  understood— yet  the  qualifications  are  no  real  suspension  of  the  rule — 
Spurious  charity  of  the  present  day— All  insincere  apologies  for,  or  com- 
mendations of,  our  neighbour,  to  be  much  avoided — The  topic  of  this 
chapter  not  unevangelical,  since  the  duty  advocated  in  it  was  exemplified 
by  Our  Lord    .  71 


CHAPTER  V. 

AN   IDLE  WORD   DEFINED   FROM   THE   DECALOGUE. 

Meaning  of  "  the  Name  of  God  "  in  Holy  Scripture — Kesemblance  be- 
tween the  Tables  of  the  Decalogue  and  the  two  sections  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer— Kesemblance  between  the  Third  Commandment  and  the  first 
petition — How  the  serious  estimate  which  God  makes  of  Words  is  im- 
plied in  the  sanction  of  this  commandment— Forms  of  sin  forbidden— 
1.  All  asseverations  which  imply  an  appeal  to  God — Original  purport  of 
the  commandment— Conversational  oaths  among  the  Jews  in  Our  Lord's 
time — Account  of  the  dissatisfaction  felt  with  simple  affirmations  and 
denials — The  restraint  which  men  would  put  upon  themselves  in  a  great 
presence — 2.  The  use  of  Scripture  to  give  point  to  a  jest— mischievous 
effect  of  this  practice — Our  Lord's  reverence  for  Holy  Scripture— general 
want  of  reverence  for  it  at  present— 3.  Controversial  use  of  sacred  words, 
without  being  duly  impressed  by  them— Difficulty  of  speaking  suitably 
about  Divine  things— The  frame  of  mind  required  to  do  so — Anecdote  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton — 1  The  duty  of  speaking  about  God  with  unction  and 
attractively— how  this  habit  may  be  acquired— 5.  The  positive  side  of  the 
Precept  exhibited — The  obligations  involved  in  the  four  first  Command- 
ments— how  the  Fourth  corrects  an  error  which  might  arise  from  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  Third— An  habitual  consciousness  of  God's  Presence 
the  mode  of  fulfilling  the  Third  Commandment  spiritually— The  check 
which  would  be  exercised  upon  our  language  by  the  remembrance  that 
God's  Eye  is  always  upon  us 89 


Contents.  13 

\  f. 

WHAT   IS  AN   IDLE  WORD? 

PAOB 
Inn  rest  and  dignity  of  exploring  tho  meaning  of  Scriptural  terms— 
Reference  to  the  context— worda,  which  the  Pharisees  had  just  sp 
were  such  as  violated  their  Internal  convictions— Hut  it  is  not  this  kind 
of  words,  which  our  Lord  terms  idle— formula  u  but  I  say  unto  you  "  In- 
dicates a  transition  to  a  more  extended  appMdtlOP    OOm  insLi: 
this  formula— The  word  idU  means  "  not  fulflllinj:  Its  end  "—Words  of 
the  Pharisees  worse  than  idle— The  strictness  of  tho  Christian  Law  on 
the  subject  of  words,  in  conformity  with  the  general  tenour  of  Evangeli- 
cal precept— Non-imp                   f  talents  accounted  wickedness  under 
tho  Gospel— Responsibility  entailed  upon  us  by  the  ascertainment  of 
Our  Lord's  meaning— a  fortiori  argument  on  tho  awfuluess  of  words 
worse  than  idle 103 

CHAPTER  VII. 

•WORDS   OF   BUSINESS  \T10S   NOT   IDLE. 

Frame  of  mind  supposed  in  the  reader— The  excellence  of  any  thing 
consists  in  fulfilling  its  proper  end— First  and  lowest  end  of  words,  to 
carry  on  the  business  of  life — System  of  society  at  a  standstill  without  * 
words— Trifling  services  which  may  be  done  by  words — Second  end,  to 
refresh  and  entertain  tbo  mind — Power  of  speech  for  the  entertainment 
of  the  mind,  analogous  to  tho  power  of  moving  the  limbs  for  the  recrea- 
tion of  the  body — Refreshment  of  unrestrained  Intercourse,  alluded  to 
in  a  proverb  of  Solomon's— The  excellence  of  such  ktnd  of  conversation 
is  wit— Connexion  of  wit  and  wisdom — Combination  of  religion  and 
merriment  in  the  same  person— What  may  be  tho  meaning  of  "jesting" 
as  forbidden  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  ?— All  precepts  of  Scripture 
meant  to  bo  strictly  carried  out — the  word  In  question  probably  indi- 
cates the  sinful  raillery  of  the  man  of  fashion — Pleasantry  most  be  1, 
pure ;  2,  must  not  wound ;  8,  must  refrain  from  things  sacred  . 


14:  Contents. 


NOTE. 

PAGE 

On  the  Perception  of  Analogies  as  constituting  Wisdom      .       .       .  138 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SPEECn   THE   INSTRUMENT   OF   PROPHECY   AND   SACRIFICE. 

Proposed  new  punctuation  of  a  passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 
sians — Teaching  and  admonishing,  the  highest  use  of  Speech  as  regards 
man— Psalms  and  Hymns,  its  highest  use  as  it  looks  towards  God— Pos- 
sibility of  edification  on  topics  not  directly  religious— Sense  in  which  all 
truth  may  be  said  to  be  a  revelation  of  God— All  lights,  both  of  reason 
and  experience,  arc  from  the  Father  of  Lights — The  Laity  not  precluded 
from  the  work  of  Eeligious  Edification— Communications  with  God  the 
highest  end  of  Speech— Speech,  a  resource  in  man's  nature  for  the  carry- 
ing on  of  such  communications — Dignity  of  the  Hymn  as  combining  in- 
telligence with  feeling— A  poem  is  a  song— Man,  in  virtue  of  his  endow- 
ment with  Speech,  the  High  Priest  of  God— This  doctrine  no  interfer- 
ence with  ministerial  functions— Ministers  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  in  their  character  of  representatives,  have  functions  which  may  not 
be  invaded— The  ministry  of  the  Christian  will  outlast  that  of  the  Min- 
ister  139 

NOTE. 

On  the  Analogy  between  the  Threefold  aspect  of  Speech,  and  the 

Threefold  office  of  Christ 152 

CHAPTER  IX. 

HINTS   FOR   THE   GUIDANCE   OF   CONVERSATION. 

Eecapitulation— Principles  laid  down  in  Holy  Scripture  for  the  Guid- 
ance of  Conversation— Primary  reference  of  the  words  "  swift  to  hear, 
slow  to  speak  "—Sin  of  lightly  arrogating  to  oneself  the  position  of  a 


0*  15 

raoi 
religions  instructor— Subordinate  reference  of  the  words  of  St.  James  to 
the  whole  range  of  Conversation— Precept*  of  Scripture  not  to  be  tied 
down  to  their  contextual  application— We  must  engage  in  conversation 
desire  of  gaining  Instruction— as  no  man  has  a  monopoly  of 
spiritual  gifts,  so  no  man  has  a  monop<»iv  of  information— every  one  has 

r  small,  of  knowledge — The  vanity  of  our  thinking 
th.it  this  knowledge  is  not  worth  drawing  out — Sublime  studies  not  al- 
ways the  moat  essential  to  I  .of  man— Seeking  to  elicit  in- 
formation la  one  secret  of  avoiding  the  lrksomcncss  of  convert-:;' 
Slowness  to  speak  Involved  In  swiftness  to  hear,  but  nevertheless  re- 
quires distinct  pressing— Scripture  profound  in  its  analysis  of  the  mo- 

,  springs— Principles  upon  which  the  intercourse 
of  the  world  is  rep:  liness  too  oft  those 

who  are  endowed  with  the  gift  of  Conversation—  Hrlllbnt  conversation 
only  unlawful,  when  It  flows  from  I  f  self-glorilleation- 

this  motive,  operating  in  a  higher  sphere,  makes  a  man  an  Hcrcsiarch — 
Assumption  of  the  Heresiarch  that  he  has  a  monopoly  of  God's  Truth— 
The  fallacy  of  this  assumption— Weighty  words  to  be  aimed  at       .       .154 

OHAPTBB  X. 

ON   RELIGIOUS   CONVERSATION. 

Religious  conversation  may  turn  upon  1,  religious  experience;  or  2, 
religious  truth,  external  to  tho  mind— The  distinction  illustrated— Anal- 
ogy between  the  mind  of  man  in  its  operation  upon  Ideas,  and  the  senses 
in  their  operation  upon  matter— Senses  so  constructed  as  to  throw  us 
Into  the  outward  world— Illustrations  from  sight,  hearing,  andVsmell — 
Any  reflex  action  of  a  sense  upon  itself  would  Indicate  disease  In  the 
organ— Similarly,  the  affections  operate  upon  objects  external  to  them- 
selves—the same  la  the  case  with  the  faculties  of  the  mind— Keflex  action 
of  the  affections,  or  mental  powers,  upon  themselves,  Indicates  disease 
in  them— But  Is  not  self-examination  a  reflection  of  the  mind  upon  Its 
own  processes  ?— true,  and  it  is  a  necessary  duty— but 


16  Contents. 

PAGE 

by  our  imperfection— Self-examination  had  no  existence  in  Paradise — 
Talking  of  our  religious  feelings  only  so  far  forth  desirable,  as  it  con- 
tributes to  the  end  of  self-examination — Mischief  which  may  be  suffered 
by  too  free  disclosure  of  our  religious  feelings — The  natural  pride  of  the 
heart  takes  its  occasion  from  humiliating  confessions — Diffusion  of  re- 
ligious feeling  leads  to  its  evaporation— such  diffusion  counteracts  natu- 
ral instincts — shame  of  moral,  as  of  physical,  nakedness — The  whole 
"Word  of  God,  with  all  its  truths,  presents  an  ample  field  for  investiga- 
tion—this investigation  greatly  promoted  by  Conversation— Disciples 
discussing  their  difficulties  on  the  way  to  Emmaus — All  Scripture  testi- 
fies of  Christ — we  read  amiss,  unless  we  find  Him  there — Necessity  of 
being  impressed  with  the  responsibility  of  the  faculty  of  speech — Was 
this  responsibility  the  reason  why  Our  Lord  sighed,  when  He  restored 
the  faculty  '—Quotation  from  Cowper's  "  Conversation  "  .       .       .       .  170 

APPENDIX. 

*  A  Sermon  on  the  Government  of  the  Tongue,  preached  in  Kugby 
School  Chapel 193 


CHAPTER  I. 

Till  .'.ON    OF    SPEECH    WITH    REASON. 

"  tfce  ffmc  cf  ttJt  slnQlnjj  of  ImDs  is  comr,  aim  tbc  bot'cc  of  tfoc 
turtle  is  fcravo  in  ouv  lani)."— Bom  ii.  li. 

Tin:  Divine  Founder  of  our  Religion   warns 

us  in  the  most  solemn  manner  against  the  sin  of 
empty  and  frivolous  conversation.  II i>  words  on 
this  mbji  uch  as  to  strike  an  awe  into  every 

conscience  in  the  ear  of  which  they  are  sounded. 
"I  say  unto  you  that  every  idle  word  which  men 
shall  speak,  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 
day  of  judgnn 

Nor  is  the  law  behind  the  Gospel  in  its  protest 
against  this  particular  form  of  evil.  We  find  such 
a  protest  inwoven  into  the  most  essential  part  of 
the  Law — into  that  part  which  is  universal  in  ap- 
plication   and   binding  upon   all  alike — into  the 

j  tables  of  the  Decalogue.  "The  Lord  will 
not  hold  him  guiltless,"  we  there  read,  "  who  tak- 


18      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

eth  His  Name  in  vain  " — the  implication  here  be- 
ing that  God  (and  His  estimate  must  be  righteous, 
— cannot  be  harsh)  will  regard  sins  of  the  tongue 
in  a  light  totally  different  from  that  in  which  the 
world  regards  them.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  Ten  Commandments  are  the  code  of  es- 
sential morality  for  all  times,  for  every  generation, 
— that  there  is  nothing  in  them  (considered  as  a 
rule  of  life)  which  has  ever  been  abrogated,  or  is 
susceptible  of  abrogation, — that  they  are  not  a 
series  of  arbitrary  rules  made  (as  it  were)  by  the 
discretion  of  the  Almighty,  but  are  based  upon 
the  eternal  relations  subsisting  between  God  and 
man,  between  man  and  his  brother ;  and  it  will 
then  be  seen  that  every  precept  which  they  incul- 
cate (whether  directly  or  by  implication)  must  be 
part  of  the  essence  of  true  religion — must  have  a 
profound  import,  and  one  which  we  can  only  trifle 
with  at  the  peril  of  our  souls. 

JSTow  the  grounds  of  this  serious  view  of  light 
talking  require  to  be  explained.  Grounds  of 
course  there  are — God's  every  word  must  be 
based  upon  counsel, — but  they  do  not  at  once 
approve  themselves  to  the  mind.  So  entirely  has 
the  comparative  indifference  of  words  taken  pos- 
session of  the  minds  even  of  religious  persons,  that 
they  find  it  difficult  to  fight  against  the  unscrip- 
tural  persuasion.     Of  what  sin  does  even  the  well- 


The  Connexion  of  Speech  ?/•////  R*a$on,      L9 

principled  and  well-conducted  man  think  D 
tightly,  than  of  8  profane  or  hot  expression,  u  I 
in  a  moment  of  exciten  And  if  he  v 

assured,  as  he  might  be  assured  on  the  I 
>ands,  that  meh  :i  Bin  baa  really  a  very  Ben 

ibly  his  Understanding  would   DOi 

once  acquiesce  in  Bach  a  verdict,     lie  might  sup- 

-  his  onderstanding  (as  he  ought  to  do)  in 

oe  to  the  testimony  of  God's  Word,  but  it 

would  require  so  [deration  before  he  could 

bring  round  liis  mind  to  assent  to  the  reasonaUe- 

ness  of  that  testimony. 

It  i-  ithor'fl  purpose  to  throw  together 

.•■  thoughts  in  the  following  \  axing  on 

the  important  subject  of  Conversation.  He  : 
more  and  more  that  one  of  the  greatest  hindra: 
t.»  personal  piety — that  which  eats  out  the  heart 
and  soul  of  true  religion — is  an  unrestrained  and 
unchastened  exercise  of  the  tongue, — that  if  per- 
sons could  but  be  persuaded  to  banish  from  their 
empty  talk  (talk  relevant  to  nothing  in  particu- 
lar, gossip  about  their  neighbours'  concerns  and 
arrangements,  little  proianeneesee  of  expression, 

1  the  like)  and  to  leave  only  such  speech  as  was 
instructive    or    amnaing  (for    words    of    inner 
humour  and  wit  are  surely  not  idle  words) — a 

•  amount  of  moral  and  spiritual  mischief  would 
be  swept  away  as  so  much  rubbish  out  of  the 


20      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason, 

world,  and  men  would  be  introduced  by  the  effort 
into  the  atmosphere  of  holiness,  as  finding  them- 
selves unable  to  effect  such  a  clearance  without 
constant  mindfulness  of  the  Presence  of  God. 
May  God  abundantly  bless  what  shall  be  offered 
upon  the  subject,  to  our  conviction  of  sin  and 
conversion  from  it,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

I  propose  to  begin  at  the  very  foundation  of 
the  subject.  This  method  of  proceeding  (Bellum 
Trojanum  ordiri  ab  ovo)  may  be  unsuitable  indeed 
for  a  poem,  but  it  is  essential  to  the  clearness  and 
stability  of  an  argument  on  graver  subjects. 
Thus  our  first  topic  will  be — 

The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

If  this  connexion  can  be  thoroughly  estab- 
lished, if  it  can  be  shown  that  Speech  is  the  great 
organ  of  Reason, — the  sign,  proof,  and  evidence 
that  a  creature  is  rational — then  the  seriousness 
of  Speech  will  at  once  become  apparent.  If  it  be 
impossible  to  make  an  ordinary  remark,  without 
calling  into  exercise  that  special  gift  which  dis- 
tinguishes man  from  the  inferior  animals,  and 
allies  him  with  God  and  holy  angels,  then  there 
may  be  some  real  and  deep-seated  impropriety  in 
making  a  trifling  or  light  remark, — in  doing  so 
we  may  be  playing  with  an  instrument  of  mighty 
power,  and  degrading  it  to  low  and  cheap  uses. 


The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason .      9  I 

Speech  then,  as  afo  aeotedwith 

khl      Reasonable  creatures  an  those  who  . 

speak, — and  conversely  those  who  can   Speak  are 

reas  With  this  tact  alone  we  shall  occupy 

OtU>  ( 'liapti  •  cch 

and  Reason  are  connected  will  I  ibjeol  of 

future  consideration. 

We  are  surrounded  by,  even  as  we  are  com- 
posed of,  three  element.- — Body,  Soul,  and  Spirit. 

I.   1  cast  our  eyes  abroad  upon  inani- 

mate  nature — upon    the   frame   of  the  earth,  the 
trees, 

There  is  no  Speech  here, — no  power  of  express- 
ing either  intelligence  or  feeling.  For  Speech  is 
not  merely  the  emitting  of  sounds.    It  is  of  course 

[OQ8  that  inanimate  nature  may  emit  sounds. 
The  waves  BUTge,  the  Stream  rippleB,  the  avalanche 
crashes,  the  thunder  mutters,  the  hare  arms  of  the 

-    in  winter  sway  and  creak    in  the  wind;  hut 
these  sounds,  however  a  lively  fancy  may  picture 
in  them  the  voice  of  nature  addressing  herself  I 
man.  have  evidently  no  affinity  with  speech. 

Let  a  man  go  abroad  amid  the  mountain 

ies  or  in  the  fields,  and  poor  forth  his  soul  to 

nature.      Let  him  previously  be  wrought  up  to 

point  of  passion  and  interest — let  him 

have  burning  thoughts  within  him,  and  long  to 

1  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


22       TJie  Connection  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

unbosom  them.  Let  him  be  full  of  passionate 
grief  or  ardent  enthusiasm,  and  let  him  be  bent 
upon  relief  by  venting  these  emotions.  Let  him 
address  the  great  solitude,  as  if  it  had  ears  to  hear 
him,  and  intelligence  to  respond.  Let  him  weep, 
let  him  plead,  let  him  expostulate,  let  him  fling 
himself  upon  the  bosom  of  the  soil,  let  him  call 
heaven  and  earth  to  witness,  let  him  attest  the 
mountains  to  his  controversy  and  the  strong  foun- 
dations of  the  earth,  let  him  seek  to  extort  a  hear- 
ing by  every  form  of  appeal  which  can  awaken 
passion,  and  rouse  dormant  sympathy ;  well, 
what  is  the  response  %  Nature,  to  those  who  seek 
her  sympathy,  is  like  Baal  to  his  worshippers. 
"  There  is  neither  voice,  nor  any  to  answer,  nor  any 
that  regardeth."  The  great  mountains  stand  in 
grim  silence  around,  unmoved  spectators  of  his 
passion ;  or,  if  they  give  back  sound,  it  is  only 
"  jocosa  montis  imago," — his  own  words  returned 
as  if  in  mockery  upon  himself.  The  mimicry  of 
his  own  pleading  rings  in  his  ear,  and  he  turns 
away  with  a  bitter  sense  of  the  barrenness  of 
his  efforts.  Nature  has  no  intelligence — she  can- 
not counsel  him  with  discourse.  She  has  no  soul 
— she  cannot  comfort  him  with  sympathy. 

Imagine  now  the  case  of  a  similar  appeal 
made  to  an  animate  and  rational  being.  Take  as 
an  example  the  tender  and  urgent  expostulations 


The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  R 
of  God  with:  .1  ereature  1 11:111.      Gfod  pours 

out    His  whole  heart  dtf  love  in    pleading, — in 
yearning  o\<  ing  efaild.      He 

draw  ing    appeals  from  every  topic, 

li  axperi  y  weight  with  it. 

At  one  time  He  roBfl  over  the  §inn< 

thunders  of  retribution — He  whispers  into  the 

:h  and  judg- 
ment. At  another.  He  arrays  before  him  the 
blessings  and  comforts  of  a  lot  which  has  fallen 
in  fair  ground,  and  asks  by  an  inward  voice  which 
will    not    be  suppressed,   whether    these  do  not 

'•imately  call  for  gratitude.  At  another.  II. • 
pleads  in  vet  more  urgent  strains  the  Sacrifice 
which  He  has  provided  to  win  hack  the  allegiance 
of  man, — the  Sacrifice  which  testifies  to  a  love 
stronger  than  death,  which  the  many  waters  of 
human  indifference  cannot  quench,  neither  can 
the  floods  of  ingratitude  drown  it.  The  God- 
man  by  J I  is  Word,  by  His  Ministers,  by  Hal 
Spirit,  pleads    the  wounds  which    scarred    His 

vd  Body,  and  the  pangs  which  rent  His  Holy 
Soul  asunder,  the  strong  crying  which  went  up 

God  from    the    depths   of  His  unfathomable 

I   the  bitter  tears  which,  in  the  days 

of  His  flesh,  the  malice  of  foes  and  the  faith: 

ness  of  friends  alike  conspired  to  draw  from  Him 

—well — and    is   there    no   response?       God  be 


24      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  JReason. 

praised,  these  pleadings  have  not  gone  forth  into 
the  world  of  spirit — into  the  world  of  reason — 
without  awakening  a  reply.  The  reply  is  Speech, 
articulate  and  intelligent.  The  reply  is  Prayer 
— no  barren  empty  retort — but  a  taking  of  words 
on  the  part  of  many,  and  a  turning  to  the  Lord. 
When  God's  Yoice  issues  His  invitation  of  Grace 
to  all  the  world,  and  says,  Seek  ye  My  face,  an 
answer  struggles  up  to  Him  from  the  depth  of 
many  a  conscience,  "  Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I  seek. 
Oh  hide  not  Thou  Thy  face  from  me,  nor  cast 
Thy  servant  away  in  displeasure."  He  addressed 
the  spirit,  or  reason,  of  man,  and  the  spirit  com- 
munes with  Him  by  its  organ  of  Speech. 

II.  But,  in  the  second  place,  we  are  surrounded 
by  animated  nature — a  stage  in  the  creation  in- 
finitely higher  than  that  which  we  have  just  con- 
sidered. 

But  again  there  is  no  Speech  here,  albeit 
there  is  a  dim  dark  semblance  of  Speech — some- 
thing which  struggles  up  towards  being  speech, 
and  seems  to  make  an  impotent  effort  to  express 
itself  in  articulate  language.  For  Speech  (prop- 
erly so  called)  is  not  the  expression  of  feeling, 
but  the  expression  of  intelligence  or  Beason. 
The  brute  creation,  as  possessing  Soul  or  affection, 
is  capable  of  expressing  feeling.  Animals  will 
cry  when  frightened  or  struck ;  the  dog  has  ever 


The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Sea* 

i    known   to   moan    round    the  hen 

r.ut  the  most  striking 

mplificati  tibility  of  animal 

and  of  their  povi  ring  it,  i 

be  (blind  in  the  notes  of  birds*    M  The  fowls  of  the 

hm\  ye  the    Psalmist,  ".-in--  among  the 

l>rai    '     .'"     r  e  atme  phenomenon  '  -1  in 

which  stands  at  the  head  of  this  chap- 

-"Thc  time  of  the  singing  of  birth  is  01 

and  the  Voice  Of  the   turtle  is  heard  in  our  land/' 

vhich   birds  pottl  forth   expresses  joy, 
contentment,  and  satisfaction,  feeling!  of  which 

they  are  no  doubt  susceptible  according  to  the 
limit-  of  their  nature,  and  the  conditions  which  it 
imposes.      Their  music,   like   instrumental   in: 

ion   and    embodiment  of  sentiment. 

What  are  the  harp  and  the  organ,  and  those  other 

nanisms  which  trace  up  their  origin  to  Jubal? 

What    are    they  but    instruments  for  expressing 

ting,  a]. art  from  intelligence?  And  their 
sounds,  as  being  the  offspring  of  affection,  touch 
and  move  the  springs  of  affection.  There  arc, 
indeed,  some  persons,  in  whom  this  source  of 
:  emotions  seems  to  be  sealed  up.  hut 
others  there  are,  in  whom  the  soul  predomint 
and  is  the  key-note  t<>  their  nature, — who  can  be 

red    even    to    tears  by  strains  of  music,  and 
whose  soul,  in  a  v;r  »dy,  now  rising  into 


26      TJie  Co7inexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

exultation,  now  sinking  into  plain  tiveness,  lies 
rocking  npon  the  undulations  of  the  music,  as 
fishing-boats  heave  and  fall  with  a  swell  in  the 
bay.  Now  birds  are  Nature's  musicians,  and  the 
song  of  birds  is  Nature's  music.  And  thus, 
even  among  unreasoning  creatures,  there  is  an 
expression  of  sentiment  or  feeling  by  means  of 
sound. 

III.  But  how  infinitely  does  this  expression 
of  feeling  fall  below  Speech,  which  is  the  expres- 
sion of  intelligence.  Only  think  what  Speech  is ; 
how  wonderful  a  gift  for  any  creature  to  be  en- 
dowed withal !  That  by  a  few  articulate  sounds, 
uttered  almost  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning,  I 
should  be  able  to  summon  up  a  whole  train  of 
ideas  in  the  mind  of  anothet,  and  those,  not 
rough-hewn  ideas — not  vague  and  undefined  im- 
pressions— but  notions  nicely  chiselled,  exact,  and 
precise  (notions  following  in  an  orderly  and  con- 
secutive arrangement  one  upon  another) — so  that, 
for  example,  a  person  whom  I  send  to  search  for 
a  thing  in  my  chamber,  comprehends  by  my 
uttering  twenty  words  the  precise  spot  in  which 
he  is  to  lay  his  hand  upon  it — why  this,  if  we  will 
but  ponder  it,  is  a  miracle — not  the  less  marvel- 
lous for  being  of  daily  occurrence.  Compare 
with  this  the  utmost  verge  to  which  any  animal 
can  go  in  the  communication  of  ideas.     Some  of 


The  Connexion  of  8peei 
the  domestic  animals  can  convey  the  -  of 

[trade  and  ai  ognizing 

their  owner  .  pnniatimonl  and  pain  under 

the  smart  of  it ;  but  what  are  these  mere  [mj 
dona  of  the  soul,  even  when  conreyed  by  Bound, 
compared  to  the  Discourse  of  Res  on,  m 

which  idea-  .  marshalled,  and 

1   with    a    facility   which    is   only 
equalled  bj  their  clearness.    Between  the  sound 
ling  and  the  sound  expressive  of 
intelligence  there  is  a  great  gulf  ii 

than   that   which    separates     man  from    man,  the 

kindly  bnt  rough  peasant  from  the  scutes!  phi 
•  r.     For  the  \\  may  be  developed  by 

Ltal  training  into  the  philosopher,  but  no 
training  or  discipline  could  develop  mere  feeling 
into  reason. 

We  see,  then,  as  a  fact  in  the  world  around 
us,  that    Reason  and  Speech  are  associated  to- 
gether.    "Where  Reason  is  not  found,  there  Speech 
is  not  found,  and  where  Reason  is,  there  Speech 
s  the  organ  or  expression  of  Reason. 

i  remarks  of  a  practical  nature  arise  from 
what  has  been  said.  In  the  course  of  our  discus- 
sion we  have  incidentally  mentioned  I 
which  the  human  heart  makes  to  God's  invita- 
tions of  Grace — Speech  in  the  form  of  prayer  and 
praise— the  highest  form  this  which  Speech  i 


28      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

assume.  How  forcible  is  the  argument  against 
vain  and  light  words,  which  this  single  thought 
supplies !  The  noblest  exercise  of  Speech,  its 
most  exalted  function,  its  great  final  cause,  is  that 
it  should  be  poured  forth  before  the  Lord  in  con- 
fession, supplication,  thanksgiving,  and  praise. 
Now,  viewing  the  matter  in  this  light,  is  not  this 
of  itself  sufficient  ground  to  make  us  think  seri- 
ously of  Speech  ?  Does  not  the  evil  of  an  idle 
word  become  apparent,  seeing  that  it  is  a  degra- 
dation to  low  uses  of  a  noble  instrument  ?  Is 
there  not  an  obvious  impropriety — an  impro- 
priety residing  in  the  nature  of  things — in  em- 
ploying a  gift,  which  is  destined  to  such  noble 
uses,  for  purposes  of  defamation,  railing,  profane- 
ness,  or  with  the  mere  frivolous  object  of  whiling 
away  time,  apart  from  the  motive  of  improve- 
ment %  I  may  add,  in  the  language  of  St.  Paul, 
accommodated  to  my  purpose  :  "  Say  I  this  thing 
of  myself,  or  saith  not  the  Scripture  the  same 
also  % "  For  is  it  not  written,  "  With  the  tongue 
bless  we  God,  even  the  Father;  and  therewith 
curse  we  men,  which  are  made  after  the  similitude 
of  God.  Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceedeth  bless- 
ing and  cursing  f  "  And  then  what  does  St. 
James  add  %  "  My  brethren,  these  things  ought 
not  so  to  be"  There  is  a  deep  impropriety,  a 
folly,  and  a  vice,  in  these  contradictory  employ- 


The  Connexion  in  Rea& 

organ.     How !  shall 
. 
up  into  your  lipa  the  inspired  strains  which  flowed 

n   the   harp   of  David:  or  shall   you  go  into 

your  chamber,  and  recite  before  God  the  pra; 
which  was  taught  you  by  the  Infinite  Wisd 

I  then  shall  you  go  forth,  and  employ  the  same^ 
tnpany,  to  point  a  profane  joke,  or  to 
launch  an  nnclean  innuendo,  orto  rail  against  your 
brother  on  the  moment  that  you  arc  thwarted  I 
Will  you  thus  take  an  instrument  of  the  temple 
service  and  degrade  it  to  the  mean  end  of  gi 
tying  temper,  or  lust,  or  the  desire  of  saying  some- 
thing smart  I     Lord,  deliver  us  from  the  guilt  of 

i  sin  in  time  past,  and  from  its  power  in  time 
to  come ! 

Finally: — One  conclusion,  to  which  the  truths 
which  we  have  developed  conduct  us,  is  the  great 
dignity,  glory;  and  beauty  of  human  Bjnging.  We 
hare  soon  that  the  song  (as  it  is  called)  of  the 
bird  ia  expressive  only  of  feeling.  There  is  soul 
in  it,  but  there  is  no  reason.     Even  without  rea- 

.  the  outpouring  of  music,  whether  from  the 
bird's   throat  or   from   the  instrument,  is  \ 
beautiful.     But   let  reason  be  added  to  mi: 

the  expression  of  feeling  be  added  to  the 

sion  of  intelligence,  as  is  the  case  in  human 
singing.     Let  the  devout  sympathies  of  the  heart 


30      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

be  made  to  keep  peace  with  articulate  discourse 
respecting  God's  mercies  (as  it  is  written,  "  I  will 
sing  with  the  spirit,  and  I  will  sing  wTith  the 
understanding  also"),  and  what  is  the  result? 
The. result  is  just  this  :  the  highest  active  engage- 
ment, in  which  man  can  by  possibility  be  em- 
ployed. Intelligence  speaking  the  praises  of 
God,  while  the  heart  echoes  them,  what  a  sublime 
exercise !  How  worthy  of  occupying  the  facul- 
ties of  man  throughout  eternity  !  Therefore  it  is, 
that  in  every  Scriptural  representation  of  the 
state  of  glory,  we  find  this  hymning  of  the  praises 
of  God  forming  the  great  staple  of  the  employ- 
ment of  the  glorified.  Are  they  spoken  of  as  the 
four  living  creatures,  or  as  the  four-and-twenty 
elders?  They  are  represented  as  falling  down 
before  the  Lamb,  having  every  one  of  them  harps, 
and  singing  a  new  song,  saying,  "  Thou  art  wor- 
thy to  take  the  book,  and  to  open  the  seals  there- 
of:  for  Thou  wast  slain  and  hast  redeemed  us  to 
God  by  Thy  blood,  out  of  every  kindred,  and 
tongue,  and  people,  and  nation."  Are  they  the 
redeemed  from  among  men,  who  follow  the  Lamb 
whithersoever  Lie  goeth  ?  They  are  represented 
as  "  harpers  harping  with  their  harps,  and  sing- 
ing as  it  were  a  new  song  before  the  throne,  which 
no  man  could  learn  but  "  themselves.  Are  they 
those  who  have  gotton  the  victory  over  the  beast, 


The  Con  nexion  of  Speech  with  Rea$(  >■■  .      81 

;•  his  image,  and  over  his  mark,  and  0 
the  number  of  his  name  :     Tin  \  .  re  shown  to  us 
■tending  ^rlass,  mingled  with  fire 

firmament,  in  which  the 

stars  wander  and  the  lightnings  play)  and 

the  song  of  Moses,  the  servant  of  Go<I%  and  th< 

sony  :>,  Baying,  "Great  and  marvellous 

Thy  works,  Lord  God    Almighty  ;  jusl    and 

Thy  waya,  Thou  King  of  Saints." 
Lord,    when    we    turn    our    minds    to    these 

glor'  ts  of  Thine,  werecognize  deeply  «>ur 

nnmeetness  to  join  in    that    mighty  chorus    of 

Hallelujah.  uWoe  \B  me,  fol  I  am  a  man  of 
unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  fl 
of  unclean  lips:  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the 
:.  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  Lord,  touch  and  hal- 
low, our  lips  by  the  live  coal  from  Thine  altar, 
nt  and  mediation,  "Who  was 
a  coal  of  earthly  nature,  kindled  with  the  fire  of 
Divinity.    Touch  our  1  [th  love  and  zeal, 

and  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  let  OUT 
months  Bpeak  Thy  high  praise.  And  by  the 
Blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  sanctified  trouble,  make  us  meet  to  j 
that  heavenly  chorus,  who  "rest  not  day  and 
night,   i  Ih'lv.   Eoly,   Lord    I 

Almighty,  which  was,  and  is,  and  me. 

Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  r<  and 


32  Note, 

honour  and  power;  for  Thou  hast  created  all 
things,  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were 
created." 


NOTE  ON  CHAPTER  I.,  p.  21. 

"Reasonable  creatures  are  those  wJio  can  speak — and,  conversely, 
those  who  can  speak  are  reasonable" 

In  order  to  justify  these  two  propositions,  it  is  necessary  to 
define  Speech  exactly. 

Speech,  then,  is  the  conveyance  of  ideas  from  mind  to  mind  in 
logical  method. 

By  holding  fast  to  this  definition,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  see 
our  way  through  cases,  which  might  at  first  appear  to  constitute 
exceptions  to  the  above  positions.  Thus  it  might  be  alleged 
against  the  first  of  them  ("  All  reasonable  creatures  speak  "),  that 
the  dumb  are  reasonable  creatures.  But  the  dumb  have  the 
faculty  of  speech,  though  some  imperfection  in  their  organs  pre- 
vents their  exercising  it  vocally.  The  essence  of  speech  is  not  in 
the  sound  ;  otherwise  a  machine  might  be  made  to  speak.  The 
dumb  can  not  only  arrange  his  ideas  in  an  orderly  and  methodical 
manner,  can  not  only  throw  them  mentally  into  consecutive  words 
and  propositions,  but  can  convey  them,  so  arranged,  to  another 
person,  by  talking  on  the  fingers. 

Against  the  second  position  ("  All  creatures  who  can  speak  are 
reasonable ")  it  might  be  alleged  that  birds  of  the  parrot  tribe, 
though  not  endowed  with  Reason,  can  speak.  But  to  this  also  it 
may  be  replied,  that  the  mere  making  of  articulate  sounds,  inde- 
pendently of  the  ideas  annexed  to  them,  is  not  Speech.  It  is  not 
pretended  that  imitative  birds  can  mentally  frame  a  proposition ; 
and  the  doing  this  is  part  of  the  essence  of  Speech. 


Note. 

But  there  axe  cases  among  t  animals  which  mount  up 

■nek  more  nearly  to  the  notion  of  speech,  than  tl. 

i  Sir  Benjamin   Brodie'fl  I  Vy  eh  (.logical 
Inquiries  (p.  192,  Second  Bdtti 

•i  place  it  h 
bees  hare  some  means  tfh  each  other,  answer- 

placed  in  a  recess  in  a  wall,  and  a  bee  i 

of  a  stick  whit. •!;  |  ip,  he  rem 

.  Mid  then  i:  In  about  I 

an  hour,  thirty  issued  from  the  same  hive, 

ami  came  to  regale  themselves  on   the  contents  of  (I 

bees  from  the  M  tinned  their  visits  as  long  a 

Sugar  remained  in  the  state  of  syrup,  and  lit  for  their  purpose,  hut 
none  came  from  anotl  ourhood.     When  the 

sugar  was  dry,  the  saucer  was  deserted,  except  that  even  no  v. 
then  a  straggler  came  as  if  it,  and  if  he  found  that  by 

the  addition  of  water  it  was  again  in  a  state  of  syrup,  his  visit  was 
presently  followed  by  that  of  numerous  others." 

On  r  trait  of  Natural   HiMory  (and  I  believe  many 

a  instances  Bright  be  adduced),  it  might  occur  to  one  to  ask: 
"  Is  not  this  Speech  in  all  its  essentials  ?     The  b.v  who  | 
the  saucer  communicated  to  those  in  his  own  hive  the  intelligence 
that  syrup  was  there — an  intelligence  of  which  i   the 

adjacent  hives  did  not  avail 

appears  to  have  been  the  case.     But  th 
no  evidence  whatever  that  the  in;  as  communicated  By  « 

method  of  arrangement  involving  Xuhjcct,  Predicate,  and  Copula, 
or  that  bees  could  so  communicate.     And  how  man . 
of  Reason  are  involved  in  the  logical  method  of  communication, 
will   be   seen    in  the   succeeding  Cha;  com- 

munication of  ideas  from  mind  to  mind,  which  is  Speech,  bi. 
communication  of  Oiem  in  logical  proposition*,  which  ordinary 
sons  effect  by  the  mouth,  and  the  dumb  by  the  hand.     Exclama- 
tions or  gestures  might  convey  to  me  that  a  man  was  in  pain,  or 
2* 


34  Note. 

in  ecstasy  of  delight,  or  that  he  wanted  me  to  reach  him  something, 
but  no  one  will  dignify  these  methods  of  communication  by  the 
name  of  Speech. 

With  all  submission  of  my  judgment  to  the  great  scientific 
authority,  whose  work  I  have  just  quoted,  and  whose  book  is 
characterized  not  only  by  its  patient  investigation  of  facts,  and 
refusal  ever  to  outrun  their  verdict  (the  great  scientific  virtue), 
but  also  by  what  is  far  more  precious — profound  deference  to 
Revealed  Religion,  I  am  unable  to  go  along  with  all  his  conclusions, 
those  especially  which  relate  to  the  possession  of  the  higher  rea- 
soning powers  by  animals.  Thus,  for  example,  he  says,  in  the 
person  of  Ergates — 

"  Setting  aside  the  lowest  form  of  animal  life,  I  apprehend  that 
no  one  who  considers  the  subject  can  doubt  that  the  mental  princi- 
ple in  animals  is  of  the  same  essence  as  that  of  human  beings  ;  so 
that  even  in  the  humbler  classes  we  may  trace  the  rudiments  of  those 
faculties,  to  which  in  their  state  of  more  complete  development  we 
are  indebted  for  the  grandest  results  of  human  genius.  We  cannot 
suppose  the  existence  of  mere  sensation  without  supposing  that 
there  is  something  more.  In  the  stupid  carp  which  comes  to  a 
certain  spot,  at  a  certain  hour,  or  on  a  certain  signal,  to  be  fed,  we 
recognize  at  any  rate  the  existence  of  memory  and  the  association 
of  ideas.  But  we  recognize  much  more  than  this  in  the  dog  who 
assists  the  shepherd  in  collecting  his  sheep  in  the  wilds  of  the 
Welsh  mountains.  Locke,  and  Dugald  Stewart  following  him,  do 
not  allow  that  brute  animals  have  the  power  of  abstraction.  Now, 
taking  it  for  granted  that  abstraction  can  mean  nothing  more 
than  the  power  of  comparing  our  conceptions,  with  reference  to 
certain  points  to  the  exclusion  of  others :  as,  for  example,  when 
we  consider  colour  without  reference  to  figure,  or  figure  without 
reference  to  colour ;  then  i"  do  not  see  how  we  can  deny  the  existence 
of  this  faculty  in  other  animals  any  more  than  in  man  himself  In 
this  sense  of  the  word,  abstraction  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  pro- 
cess of  reasoning,  which  Locke  defines  as  being  the  perception  of 
the  agreement  or  disagreement  of  our  ideas.     But  who  can  doubt 


Note.  35 

l  dog  reasons,  while  he  is  looking  for  his  master,  whom  ho  has 
or  (as  in  t  lie  instance  of  ulii.h  wt  m  re  aportlnoj  jnet  now) 
when  ho  is  seeking  his  way  home  over  an  unknown  country  ?  " 

flection  ho  accurate,  Dugald  Stewart  docs  not 
iiu an  to  deny  thai  hrute  animals  arc  capable  Of  tin-  simpler  t 

i -oniiiLT.    lio  merely  states  that  being  enable  t<»  can 
■ee  of  thought  by  (he  l » < ■  1 1 »  of  artificial  eigne  (that  I 

language),  they  have  no  power  Of  entiling  | 

ions." 

"Without  douhting  for  an  instant  the  vast  suporiority  of  the 
human  mind,  still  //  ejegMOre  to  me  to  be  difficult  to  say  how  far 
the  capacities  of  brute  animals  <ir>  /imif.'l  in  (Item  respect*,  li 
is  not  t<» 

00  any  long  or  complex  pre 
tevertheieee,  that  thoae  who  are  horn  deaf  end  dmnb  reason 
Oft;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  DO  ■  pit ■.-- 

i  whether  some  animals  are  so  wholly  unprovided  with  lan- 

The  ineapability  of  animals  to  arrive  at  general  or  scientific 

.  isions,  maintained   by  Dugald  Stewart,  and   questioned    in 

the  above  passage,  seems  to  me  to  be  perfectly  tenable,  notwith- 

standing    the   instances    adduced  against  it     Let   it  be  pasted 

finds  his  master  in  the 
same  way  (so  far  as  mental  process  is  concerned)  as  a  man 
or  a  boy  would.  lie  knows  his  master  by  sight.  (A  r<i>cated 
:  the  senses,  united  with  memory,  eflbots  this.)  He 
knows  his  habits.  Having  accompanied  him  En  his  walks,  he 
is  aware  to  what  places  he  usually  resorts  at  certain  hours. 
He  goes  to  the  same  places,  or  in  the  same  direction.  In 
this  he  lias  an  additional    assistance    from   the  I        Inch 


36  Note. 

the  man  does  not  enjoy),  in  the  keenness  of  his  scent.  Prob- 
ably this  keenness  of  the  scent  furnishes  a  large  amount  of  help 
in  that  much  more  wonderful  phenomenon,  adverted  to  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Conversation,  and  which  I  myself  have  known  as 
taking  place — a  dog  taken  in  a  carriage  and  by  a  circuitous  route, 
to  a  distant  place,  finding  his  way  back  to  his  former  home  across 
a  tract  of  country  with  which  he  could  have  had  no  previous 
acquaintance. 

Probably  animals,  being  much  more  occupied  in  the  senses, — 
living  in  them  much  more  than  men  do,  are  generally  far  more 
observant  of  sensible  tokens.  A  man's  mind  has  a  wider  sphere 
through  which  to  diffuse  itself.  As  he  walks  or  is  carried 
through  the  streets,  he  muses  on  future  contingencies,  or  on 
past  incidents — his  mind  is  not  in  the  senses — audit,  non  auscul- 
tat.  Hence  in  many  exercises  of  the  mind  upon  the  notices 
of  sense,  we  should  expect  to  find  him  even  inferior  to  the 
animals. 

But  in  the  instances  referred  to,  I  cannot  see  any  evidence 
which  shows  more  in  the  mind  of  the  animal  than  memory,  and 
close  observation.  Where  is  the  abstraction?  the  generaliza- 
tion ?  the  perception  of  law  ?  any  approach  to  the  apprehension 
of  a  general  and  scientific  truth  ?  If  we  must  represent  by  an 
equivalent  proposition  the  idea  in  the  animal's  mind,  will  it 
ever  mount  above  a  particular  proposition — "  This  is  the  man 
whom  I  saw,  or  this  the  road  along  which  I  travelled,  the 
other  day,"  &c,  &c.  ?  Though  indeed  to  represent  it  by  a  propo- 
sition at  all,  gives  probably  an  erroneous  notion,  as  all  propo- 
sitions involve  arrangement  and  classification  of  ideas.  (See  next 
Chapter.) 

Does  not  the  author  somewhat  ignore  the  old  and  most  true 
distinction  between  the  intellectual  efforts  (if  we  are  to  call  them 
so)  of  animals,  and  those  of  men — a  distinction  which  places 
between  the  two  a  great  and  apparently  impassable  gulf? 
Marts  state  is  susceptible  of  continual  improvement,  and  his 
civilization  of  continual  progress  by  fresh  discoveries.      Reason 


Note. 

possessed  by  him)  is  susceptible  of  I 
i  we  can  set  bo  limits.     When  i>  there  any  I 
parable  to  this,  or  :vt  |  ally  the  sam.\  in  the 

animals?     It  cannot,  I  8uppos< ,  I   that  animals,  under 

vular    emergencies,  occasionally  devise  a 
•mselves.     They  may  dis- 
t  a  door  ot  ia  a  particular  01 

down  the  platform  of  ;i  general  principle^  or  not  upon  it  step 
by  Btep  the  ■aperstruetore  of   an  ameliorated  and   1 
dftfton  of  "  the  repnbH 

•pnbUo  one  whit  I   now 

than   it  was  when    rooks  were   first   i  lotion 

Be   triis   ns  (with   pool  truth  and 

.uchi- 

make  drring  !>»  11-,  bore  galleries,  raise  vaults, 
and  i  bei  of  .-kill  end 

industry  arc  no  doubt  innate  in  some  of   them,  and  correspond 
to  tl.  and  modes  of  B  '  <ive  insects 

ever  -  ''  w^w  resource  wkiek  Ciejf  new  i«>t  < 

domed  with  t    If  not,  why  not  ?      Is  it   only  beeause  they 
not  the  mnnlol  stimulus  necessary  to  don? 

becai;  .  as  to  aeqtdesco  in  a  supi  ' 

the  needs  of  their  pn  Of  existence?  1  •  :i  the 

immediate  want  is  satisfied,  there  is  no  further  restlessness  i 
mind — no  This  may  partly  account  for  it,   but   we 

think  is  much   reason  to  - 

Dugald  Stewart,  an  impossibility  of  "  arriving  at  general  or 
tific  conclusions." 

I  have  not  adverted  in  the  text  (lest  I  should  too  much  tres- 
pass upon  >us  and  practical  character  of  the  work)  to 
iv  find  place  in  a  note,  as  going  far  to 
i  Reason  a: 
h  is  a  very  old  debate  (into  the  rights  of  which  it  is  foreign  to 
our  present  purpose  to  enter)  whether  or  not  it  is  possible  to 
reason  mentally,  without  having  the  words  in  the  mind,  which 


38  JVote. 

represent  the  subjects  of  our  reasoning.  Whatever  be  the  truth 
on  this  moot  point,  the  fact  of  its  being  a  moot  point  is  suffi- 
cient to  establish  generally  a  close  connexion  between  Reason  and 
Speech. 

If  a  question  were  raised  and  discussed,  whether  or  not  it  is 
possible,  under  present  arrangements,  to  pay  tithes  in  kind — 
whether  or  not  they  may  be  paid  in  any  other  form  than  that  of 
money — this  would  be  a  sufficient  evidence  of  a  connexion  be- 
tween tithe  and  money,  and  that  the  latter  is  commonly  the  form 
in  which  the  former  appears. 


OHAPTEB   11. 

THE  CONNEXION  OF  BPKBOB    WITH    REASON. 

"  ZlnXt  out  of  tbc  QvounU  tlic  JLovO  (Soo  fovmro  clirnj  beast  of 

tfcc  ftflo,  ano  rbrvn  fotol  of  tbc  air  ;  anD  biouflltf  tljrm  unto 

£lttam  to  sr r  tobat  be  uioulO  call  tbrm  :  anb  tobatsorbcr  3oam 

calico  cbrvn  libinfl  ciratuvr,  tbat  hMl  tlic  name  thereof."— 

ft,  L9. 

"  31c  surname!!  tbcm  Boancrrjcs,  uibfcb  ts,  tbc  sons  of  UnmUer." 
-M.u:k  iii.  17. 

In  the  I  pter  we  called  Attention  to  the 

fact  that  Speech  and  Reason  are  associated  tc- 
getli 

In  pursuing  the  topic  farther,  we  shall  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  grounds  and  manner  of  thai 

While  speaking  on  subjects  of  rather  an  ab- 
stract and  philosophical  character,  I  desire,  hoth 
[f,  that  we  should  keep  in 
mind  that  the  end  of  our  discussion  is  to  edify — 
to  point  out  how  intrinsicaHy  serious  and  awful  a 
the  faculty  n\'  B[  .  and   so  to  illustrate, 


40      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Beason. 

and  show  the  grounds  of,  Our  Lord's  censure  of 
idle  words. 

The  naming  by  Adam  of  the  beasts  and 
fowls  is  the  first  exercise  of  human  Speech  upon 
record. 

I  say,  it  is  the  first  exercise  of  human  Speech. 
The  faculty  of  Speech  must  have  existed  before. 
In  the  circumstance  of  his  naming  the  several 
creatures,  it  is  sufficiently  implied  that  our  first 
parent  must  have  been  previously  endowed  with 
the  gift,  which  alone  could  have  enabled  him  to 
name  them.  Not  only  must  the  bodily  organs 
which  are  necessary  to  articulation — the  tongue, 
the  lips,  the  palate,  the  throat,  the*  teeth, — have 
existed  previously;  but  those  processes  of  the 
mind,  which  are  essential  to  the  formation  of  lan- 
guage, must  have  been  previously  developed  and 
(to  a  great  extent)  matured. 

Now  a  question  might  be  raised  of  this  kind. 
Speech  being  so  obvious  a  characteristic  of  man, 
why  are  we  never  told  that  man  was  endowed 
with  Speech  ?  Why  is  no  notice  given  us,  that 
God  bestowed  upon  His  noblest  creature  a  gift  so 
wonderful  ?  Why  is  our  attention  never  called  to 
the  time  at  which  the  grant  was  made  ?  Why, 
in  short,  is  the  endowment  assumed  as  a  matter 
of  course  ?  The  answer  is  obvious.  The  gift  of 
language  is  involved  in  the  gift  of  a  rational  soul. 


v  Connexion  of  Speech  with  fteason .      1 1 

And  a  rational  soul  '  I  th<>  constitution  of 

•  thai  do  creature  El  a  man  without  it. 

It  having  I  that  Man  was  made  in 

and  thai  the 

.ih  of  lives  (noi  '  :ual,  in- 

tellectual, and  spiritual  life)  was  DTI  athcd  into  his 

trflg,  it  would  liavc  been  BUperfluoua  to  add 
tliat   he  was  endowed  with   Speech,  for  tha 
>rved  in  tins  account  of  hi  ation,    ] 

following    illustration    is    offered.        Snp; 

I  man  had  manufactured  ■  watch. 

need  to  be  subsequently  informed 

that  he  had  placed  a  mainspring  in  the  heart  of 
it.  For  a  mainspring  is  essential  to  the  const  itu- 
of  a  watch:  a  watch  is  not  a  watch  (but  only 
the  sembhrnee  of  a  watch)  without  a  mainspring, 
and  therefore,  when  we  are  informed  that  lie  man- 
ufactured a  watch,  it  is  implied  that  lie  gave  it  a 
mainspring.  Or  suppose  that  those  words  of  In- 
:i,  "God  maketh  the  light,"  were  read  in 
your  hearing.  Would  any  man,  possessed  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  think  of  asking,  "Why 
rid  that  Clod  made  colours,  that  beau- 
tiful raiment  of  many  hues  which  nature  is  dre 
withal,  the  ruddy  streaks  of  the  evening  SU1 
the  deep  purple  of  the  sea  under  BOme  conditions 
of  the  atmosphere,  the  gorgeous  plumage  of  birds 
in  hot  climates,  and  so  forth  I  n     The  answer  of 


42      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

course  is,  that  in  making  light,  God  made  colour ; 
all  colour  is  in  the  light,  as  yon  will  see  by  em- 
ploying the  prism.  In  the  absence  of  light  there 
is  no  colour,  showing  that  colour  resides  not  as  a 
quality  in  objects  themselves,  but  is  an  essential 
property  of  light.  The  difference  of  colour  in 
objects  is  caused  merely  by  some  very  subtle 
difference  of  superficies  and  texture,  one  superficies 
or  texture  absorbing  the  brighter  rays,  and  reject- 
ing (or  reflecting)  the  more  sombre ;  while  others, 
of  directly  contrary  affinity,  absorb  the  sombre, 
and  reflect  the  bright.  Now  just  as  colour  inheres 
in  light,  and  is  developed  out  of  it,  so  Speech  in- 
heres in  Reason  ;  and,  therefore,  when  it  is  asserted 
or  implied  that  a  creature  is  rational,  it  were  only 
superfluous  to  add  that  he  has  the  faculty  or  en- 
dowment of  Speech.  His  endowment  with  Rea- 
son implies  as  much. 

But  now  let  us  look  more  minutely  into  the 
narrative  of  Adam's  naming  the  creatures,  and 
consider  what  other  implications  respecting  the 
gift  of  Speech  may  be  found  in  it. 

It  is  against  propriety  to  suppose  the  names 
to  have  been  purely  arbitrary  and  unmeaning,  to 
have  been  simply  articulate  sounds  attached  with- 
out reason  to  the  various  animals.  Such  an 
hypothesis  may  be  discarded,  as  not  correspond- 
ing with  the  dignity  of  the  subject.     The  consti- 


<<i  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

d  sovereign  of  I  b,  under  whose  I 

b  solemnly  placed  w  ill  sheep  and  oa 
ami  the  beasts  of  the  field;  the  fowl  of  the  air, 

ind  tin-  sea,  and  whatsoever  walketh 

through  the  paths  of  the  seas," — walks  abr 
m  the  domain,  which  lias  been  newlj 

tores  an  to  pass  before  him  in  1. 

y, — each   pause-  lor  a  moment   t  his 

searehiii.  i. — and  then  the  air 

rherates  in  disti'  :;tmc.     BhaU 

we  suppose  that   in  such  a  name  there  was   no 
suitability,  —  nothing  implying  discernment 

iesof  the  animal, — nothing  tliat  .-bed  light 
upon  its  habits,  manners,  and  characteristics  ? 
Such  a  notion  seems  to  me  untenable  upon  the 
surface  ;  it  goes  to  represent  the  whole  transaction 
as  a  verv  futile  and  shallow  one. 

Rejecting  it,  therefore,  and  adopting  the  view 

there  being  a  propriety  and  significance  in  the 

names  which  Adam  conferred,  let  113  consider  how 
much  of  previous  mental  process  on   his  part  is 

thus  implied. 

The  may  hare  been  significant  eitl 

thephvsieal  properties  of  the  animals,  or  of  their  bab- 

:id  character.     (One  instance  of  8  name  of  the 

OCT  elass  in  the  Latin  language  would  biicorvw, 

[tying  the  raven — a  word  whieh  many  etymo- 


44      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

logists  regard  as  identical  with  the  adjective  eurvus, 
crooked,  supposing  the  bird  in  question  to  have 
been  thus  denominated  from  the  crookedness  of  its 
beak.)  Let  us  suppose  then  that  the  beasts  and 
fowl  were  all  designated  originally  on  a  principle 
similar  to  this ;  that  the  fox  drew  his  name  from 
his  cunning,  the  hare  from  its  quick  sense  of  hear- 
ing, the  horse  from  its  fleetness,  the  rhinoceros 
from  its  impenetrable  flakes  of  natural  armour, 
the  eagle  from  the  power  of  its  eye.  The  process 
must  have  been  something  of  this  kind  ;  and  what 
does  such  a  process  imply  ?  It  implies  first  gen, 
eral  notions  of  cunning,  quick  hearing,  fleetness, 
impenetrability,  power  of  eye.  These  notions,  and 
the  words  expressing  them,  must  have  been 
formed  previously  in  the  mind  of  Adam.  And  this 
formation  of  abstract  ideas  was  probably  effected 
much  as  it  is  now,  by  observation  and  experience. 
The  child  becomes  conversant  by  means  of  his 
senses  with  certain  objects  which  agree  in  some 
one  point,  which  have  the  same  colour,  or  the  same 
form,  or  which  stand  in  similar  relations  to  some 
other  objects.  Hence  he  gains  what  is  called  an 
abstract  idea, — an  idea  independent  of,  and  more 
perfect  than,  any  object  which  he  has  ever  seen. 
The  sight  of  snow,  and  wax,  and  wool,  and  white 
paper,  furnishes  him  with  a  general  idea  of  the 
colour  white.      The   arrowy  rushing  of  a  rapid 


|UNIVERSIT 

0  Connexion  of  &pec<  ^g^fr  TfW 

•,  the  rapid  wearing  of  some  unyoked  animal, 
tlu*  flighl  of  an  arrow — these  and  similar  scenes 
open  theeyei  of  bia  mind  to  the  genera]  aot 

mora]  qnaliti 
formed  in  the  same  way.     Be  ha  an  in- 

oate  moral  sense ;  bni  it  is  developed  by  witneasi 

ionlar  instances  of  mora]  conduct.     [nstam 
in  a  parent  or  guardian  of  Impartiality,  or  the 
verse,  give  birth  to  1  ideas  of  justice  and 

injustice.      So    that,  in   short,  before  a  child   could 

nam-  bjeot   white,  or  any   movement    BWJ 

or  any  action  just,  his  mind  must  have  been  at 
work.    l-t.  ( Observing  ami  noticing  thingB  around 

him.      2dly.    Comparing    them    together.      8dly. 
Classifying  them  according  to  the  results  of  the 
comparison.      To   denominate  a  horse  white,   lie 
must   first    have   noticed    several    white    objY 
(this  would    demand  merely  an  exercise  of  the 
Secondly,  lie  must   have  placed   them 
in    his  mind    (this  would   demand  an 
of  memory).    Thirdly,  he  must,  by  seiz- 
npon  the  point  in  which  they  agree,  and  drop- 
the  points  in  .which  they  differ,  have  rcdu 
them  under  a  general  head  or  classified  them  (tl 
won:  :d  an  exercise  of   the  power 

abstraction  and  generalization). 

This  last  power,  wMeh  we  may  call  the  power 
of  C  ke  to  be  one  of  the  distin- 


46      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

guishing  characteristics  of  tlie  Reason.  You  may 
classify  or  generalize  too  hastily,  and  so  errone- 
ously (the  uneducated  do  so) ;  but  this  affords  no 
sufficient  grounds  against  regarding  the  power  of 
Classification  as  one  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  human  Reason.  What  is  the  first  thing 
which  a  superior  mind  does,  when  it  grapples  with 
any  subject?  It  classifies;  it  throws  immediate 
light  upon  the  subject  by  a  clear  and  good  division 
of  it  under  heads.  Look  at  such  a  work  as  Lord 
Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning.  He  takes  up 
each  subject  of  human  learning,  and  divides  it  into 
its  branches  with  an  admirable  skill.  The  mere 
division,  independently  of  the  comment  upon  it, 
sheds  a  very  considerable  light  upon  the  subject 
itself — its  bearings  flash  upon  you  as  you  read  the 
dry  heads  of  the  topic  to  be  discussed.  Again,  in 
matters  of  practical  management,  how  is  a  great 
mind  discerned?  When  the  affairs  of  a  nation 
have  got  entangled  and  are  in  confusion,  what  is 
the  first  work  of  the  intellect  which  professes  to 
right  them  ?  Is  it  not  organization  ?  and  what  is 
organization  but  Classification, — the  discerning  a 
fitness  between  certain  men  and  certain  posts,  and 
placing  the  men  in  those  posts, — the  methodical 
devolving  of  certain  functions  upon  certain  seasons 
and  certain  persons, — the  full  carrying  out,  in  great 
matters,  of  the  principle  which  holds  in  common 


e  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Rea*<  st,       17 
things,  that  there  shall  Km  ;i  place  for  every  \] 

and  that  every  thing  >h:ill  he  in  its  pll 

Classification,  then,  m  thegreaf  work  of  the 
And  it  will  be  observed  that  Language 

classifications   made  by   the 

Language  does  not  give  us  a  distinct  won! 

in  the  world, — it  does  not  assign  to 
things  as  to  men, proper  names;  l>nt    it   gives  us 
words,  embracing  whole  .  and  bo 

susceptible  of  numerous  applications.    Take  any 
substani  .  or  verb,  in  any  language, — 

and  you  will  see  that  the  substantive 

see  not  one  object,  but  many, — the  adjec 
the  quality  not  of  one  object,  but  of  many, — and 
verb  not  one  action,   but  many.      The  sub- 
r-tantive  comprises  numerous  objects,  and  the  verb 
numerous  actions,  under  one  head.     This  is  the 
er  of  Classification  in  the  human  mind,  putting 
f  forth  in  words.     Hence  the  intimate  connec- 
tion of  Speech  with  Reason. 

Of  <•  is  not  intended  to  convey  the  im- 

-ion,  that  every  one  employing  Language  has 
iously  gone  through  the  mental  processes  of 
observation,  memory,  and  classification,  which  we 
have  described.     Certainly  not.    It  is  only  asserted 
that  rst  formation  of  Language,  as  in  tl<< 

first  adoption  of  it  hj  ca  dual,  these  pro- 

of the  Chapter. 


48      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

cesses  of  mind  must  have  been  previously  at  work. 
Words  are  the  great  medium  of  commerce  between 
mind  and  mind,  as  coins  are  the  medium  of  literal 
commerce.  And  as  coins,  in  passing  through  many 
hands,  become  quite  worn  and  smooth,  and  lose 
all  trace  of  their  original  minting,  so  it  is  with 
words :  men  fling  them  about  in  exchange  to  one 
another,  as  current  for  such  or  such  a  significa- 
tion, without  ever  dreaming  of  the  intellectual  pro 
cesses  which  gave  them  their  origin.  But  Divine 
Truth,  with  its  heavenly  precepts  against  idle  or 
light  words,  recalls  our  minds  to  this  origin.  It 
bids  us  see  in  words  the  exercise  of  the  human 
Reason.  It  rubs  off  the  crust  and  film  of  usage, 
which  has  grown  over  them,  and  obscured  their 
origin,  and  made  us  think  as  lightly  of  them  as  of 
pebbles  on  the  sea- shore,  and  discloses  to  us  their 
lustre,  worth,  and  weight,  and  above  all  the  image 
and  superscription  of  Reason  which  they  bear 
— Reason,  which  was  itself  made  in  the  image  of 
God. 

We  turn,  however,  gladly  from  the  more 
speculative  part  of  the  subject  (which  yet  is  neces- 
sary in  order  to  the  thorough  sifting  of  it)  to  the 
second  passage  which  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
Chapter — that  passage  which  brings  before  us,  not 
the  first  man  who  introduced  sin  and  death  into 
the  world,  but  the  second  Adam,  through  whom 


'Conner  ^jyeech  with  Iieasi 

alone  flow  pardon.  Ingtothegui] 

ressly  st;.  '.ml  to  ha 

Igtire  of  Him  thai  was  to  c 

Adam  m 

over  nature,  by  bestowing  erior 

animals,  so  d«>  wo  find  the  Lord  Jesus  Ohrisl  oiani- 
:  v  iii  I  lis  Bpiritnal  Kingdom 
of  Grace,  by  bestowing  names  upon  His]) 
3e  gives  to  Bimon  the  name  of  Peter,  toJai 
an<l  John  the  surname  of  Boanerges,  or  the  sons 
of  thunder. 

What  the  precise  signification  of  the  1 

name,  Bfl  applied  to  St.  James  and  St.  .John,  : 
be,  has  been  much  disputed.  The  most  probable 
account  is,  that  it  has  reference  to  the  impetuous 
r  of  the  two  Apostles, — the  spirit  which 
prompted  the  suggestion  that  fire  from  heaven 
should  be  called  down  upon  inhospitable  Samari- 
tans. Against  this  it  might  he  alleged,  that  St. 
John  at  least  was  eminently  the  apostle  of  Love, 
that  gentleness  and  charity  seem  to  have  been  his 
distinguishing  graces — that  the  traditional  re] 
sentation  of  him  by  painters  gives  a  cast  of  femi- 
nine lascnlme  beauty  to  the  counte- 
nance,— and  that  impetuosity  therefore  could  not 
have  been  his  loading  characteristic.  But  may  it 
not  be  questioned  whether  love,  and  ardent  im- 
petuosity in  behalf  ot  i,  arc  not  two 
3 


50     The  Connection  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

sides  of  one  and  the  same  character  ?  "We  speak 
proverbially  of  the  love  of  women — the  tenderness 
of  women, — and  are  not  women  far  more  animated 
and  energetic  than  men,  when  one  upon  whom 
they  have  fastened  their  entire  affection  is  assault- 
ed ?  Is  not  their  pride  in  the  person  they  love, 
and  their  jealousy  on  behalf  of  that  person,  far 
more  keen  and  susceptible  than  the  pride  and 
jealousy  which  the  harder  sex  feel  for  their  friends  % 
Which  of  the  two,  think  you,  would  most  vehe- 
mently resent  an  injury  done  to  a  son,  or  a  slur  cast 
upon  him — the  father  or  the  mother  ?  I  think  the 
mother.  And  I  think  that  something  of  this 
feminine  impetuosity  of  spirit  is  manifest  in  the 
writings  of  the  Apostle  of  Love.  It  is  hallowed, 
of  course,  and  chastened  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
which  rested  upon  him  as  he  wrote,  but  still  there 
is  the  trait  of  natural  character  which  gave  rise  to 
the  surname  Boanerges.  We  hear  the  thunder 
when  he  writes  respecting  "  those  who  confess  not 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,"  such  a 
censure  as  the  maudlin  liberality  of  the  nineteenth 
century  would  pronounce  uncharitable :  "  If  any 
man  come  unto  you,  and  bring  not  this  doctrine, 
receive  him  not  into  your  house,  neither  bid  him 
God  speed."  And  if  tradition  may  be  trusted,  he 
acted  in  the  spirit  of  this  precept,  when,  hearing 
that  Cerinthus  the  heretic  was  in  the  bath-house, 


a  Connexion  of  Speech  xoith  Reason. 

he  fled  from  the  baths,  lest  the  roof  of  the  build' 
ild  tall  in  upon  the  aasaOanl  of  divine  truth — 

thus  carrviii-r  out  the prindpl  lown  Kn  die 

mar  ioto,  I   pray  you,  from 

•  wicked  men,  and  touch  nothing  of  th< 
ye  be  consumed  in  their  sins."    I  cannot  refrain 

i  moment  from  our  topic,  to 
mark  how  stranp-ly  these  words  and  these  actions 

a!  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the  generation  on 
which  we  are  fallen.     To  us  such  a  mode  of speak- 
appears   illiheral.     And  why?     I 
beli<  ant    Of  this    alteration  in  the  feel- 

istians  towards  those  who  deprave  or 
deny  God's  Truth,  to  be  simply  this:  Lov 
waxed  cold,  as  the  Lord  Himself  predicted  it 
should.  We  of  this  century  have  no  love  of  Christ, 
or  but  a  faint  and  chilled  love;  and  accordingly 
we  have  no  jealousy  for  His  honour,  and  no  sen.-i- 

uess  to  any  Blight  which  the  irreverent  seekers 
;al  wisdom  may  put  upon  Ilim.     And  our 
utter  indifference  to  Ilim  we  represent  to  oum il 
and  others  under  the  extraordinary  name  of  liber- 
ality !     Oh!  we  could  not  say  Anathema  Mara- 
natha  to  those  who  love   Ilim   not,  we  could  not 
fling  a  sentence  of  excommunication  at  any  soul 
of  man,  we  could  not  refuse  our  hand,  nor  a  ; 
under  our  roof,  even  to  the  worst  heretic  thai 
traversed  God's  Earth  !     If  a  man  announces  to  all 


52       The  Connexion  of  /Speech  with  JReason. 

the  world  that  he  considers  Him,  upon  whom  my 
hopes  rest  for  time  and  for  eternity,  my  Lord  and 
my  God,  my  guide  through  life,  my  support  in 
death, — to  be  but  a  mythical  character,  the  crea- 
tion of  man's  brain,  the  fabulous  impersonation  of 
perfect  virtue  (or  some  such  nonsense) — I  can  hear 
the  announcement  without  wincing, — I  am  too 
liberal  forsooth  to  evince  any  righteous  indigna- 
tion !  But  it  is  well  for  me  to  understand  that 
this  liberality  of  mine  is  so  far  from  being  love, 
that  it  is  actually  one  feature  of  the  want  of  love. 
If  I  were  a  son  of  love,  I  should  be  in  my  measure 
a  son  of  thunder  also.  But  having  a  cold  heart 
— my  regards  for  the  Saviour  being  faint  and  feeble 
— I  can  bear  to  hear  even  His  existence  canvassed 
with  true  nineteenth  century  charity.  But  I  have 
none  of  the  charity  of  the  first  century, — none  of 
the  charity  which  called  Elymas  the  sorcerer  "  a 
child  of  the  devil,  and  an  enemy  of  all  righteous- 
ness,"— none  of  the  charity,  whose  accents,  as 
directed  against  error  in  principle,  and  vice  in  prac- 
tice, were  these :  u  Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of 
vipers,  how  can  ye  escape  the  damnation  of  hell  ?" 
Such  is  the  account  which  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  give  of  the  significance  of  the  name 
Boanerges,  as  applied  to  St.  James  and  St.  John. 
But  whether  or  no  we  can  discern  the  significance 
of  the  name,  most  certain  it  is  that  it  was  emi- 


of  Speech  with  Reason. 
oently  significai  by  Him  who 

m  what  was   in   man,  and   lias  tSD  into 

tin1  of  all  Hi>  creatures. 

To  '■■■■  i€  any  thing  truly  according  bo 

ipliea  of  course  an  insight  lot  mo- 

tor.    For  which  reason  it  is  specially  mention* 

;'(iod,that  Be  DEI 

toHe  teUeth  the  anmberof  the  stars,  and 

No  man  can  name  the 

stars  appropriately  (he  may  give  them  names  drawn 
from  tl.  cesof  his  fancy — from  imaginary 

figures  in  which  they  arc  grouped);  but  no  man 

can  give  tlicm  mum*  v.rpressivc  of 'tit  >  \ '  r  character^ 
because  in  truth  he  knows  not  what  they 
What  is  a  planet?  Is  it  a  vast  globe  of  super- 
fluous fluid, — a  repository  of  waters,  dispensed 
witli  by  the  great  Artificer  in  the  formation  <>t 
the  earth,  and  now  wheeling  round  on  the  ski 

lie  mundane  system?  or  is  it  an  abode  of  life 
and   intellivj  .   the  home  and  haunt  of 

angels  I  And  what  is  a  fixed  star?  Is  it  a  sun 
of  other  systems?  or  is  it  a  shred-coil  of  luminous 
•  fragment  of  a  nebula  ?  We  may 
speculate  on  these  things,  and  form  or  a> 
theories  on  the  subject — but  we  are  totally  igno- 
rant of  the  true  character  of  a  star,  and  so  n 
remain,  unless  the  range  of  our  telescopes  is  enor- 
mously enlarged — ID  enlargement,  the  mechanical 


54      The  Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason, 

difficulties  of  which  wo  aid  be  probably  insupera- 
ble. The  nature  of  a  star  is  a  mystery — and,  con- 
sequently, the  naming  of  a  star  is  an  attainment 
beyond  our  reach. 

"We  have  spoken  of  Our  Lord's  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  character  of  His  disciples,  a  knowl- 
edge which  He  evinced  in  naming  them.  It  is 
well  to  remind  ourselves  that  He  has  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  our  characters — could  at  once  pro- 
nounce the  name  which  would  most  suitably  ex- 
press them.  His  eyes,  which  are  as  fire,  penetrate 
through  all  disguises,  and  read  the  ruling  passion, 
the  besetting  sin,  under  every  mask  of  outward 
circumstance  and  position.  He  has  read  our 
secret  history  from  childhood:  not  that  history 
which  has  been  patent  to  the  world,  but  that 
which  has  been  transacted  in  the  inner  man,  in 
the  depths  of  our  consciousness.  Does  He  see  that 
we  are  His  indeed  ?  that  amid  all  the  blackslid- 
ings  of  certain  portions  of  our  lives,  amid  all  the 
intricacies  of  feeling  and  motive,  amid  all  the 
alternating  conflicts  of  passion  and  principle, 
there  is  in  us  a  true  and  loyal  heart  ?  Let  us  but 
put  this  question  to  our  consciences  solemnly, 
and  compel  from  them  an  honest  and  candid  an- 
swer to  it ; — and  we  shall  not  have  closed  without 
benefit  a  Chapter,  which  to  some  may  have  ap- 
peared too  abstruse  and  speculative  for  a  religious 


.  on  a  subject    ><>  eminently  practical  as 
that  of  the  [die  Word. 


ft  GHAFTBB  ii..  p.  i8. 

Classification  is  Oic  grett  tcork  of  the  Jicason. 

■  lark,  it  will  be  i  thai  the 

▼ices  of  tho  Rea-  elassilieati- 

i — the  fruitful  mother  of  all 

-tition — is  over-hasty  Classification.     Two  things  aflSOCl 
ntally  (the  weari: 
from  illness)  the  uncultiva  y,  and  re- 

gards as  essentially  t  mother.     This  ii  an  in- 

stance of  the   vice   of  hasty  Clas.-ilicatioii   in   its   rw 
Among  the  educated,  the  same  vice  shows  itself  in  other  ! 
One  notorious  property  of  stupid  people  ?"«  th<  V 
apprehending  a  distinction.     They  have  laid  down  a  rule,  to  which 
lordly  adhere  in  cases  which  are  obviously  exceptional — 
or  they  entertain  some  cherished  view,  under  which  they  reduce 
all  cases  which  have  some  superficial  affinity  with  it.     Thus  th.y 
reckon   things   homogeneous,  and   class   them   under   one  head, 
which  1  tally  have  profound  ies. 

But  there  is  an  opposite  defeet  of  the  Reason,— and  it  is  one 

of  refinement  and  over-cultivation.      It  is  popularly  termed  the 

"J  a  distinction   irithout  a  A   auimni  will 

often    dcvelope    distinctions    of    this    kind — distinctions   of  tlie 

leal  character,  and  which  in  truth  have  no  n 
would  reason  aright,  we  must  neither  classify  too  rough! 
tinguish    too  finely — we  must  steer  a  mean    between    the   two 
excesses. 

I  shall  illustrate  further  the  two  faulty  processes,  by  pointing 


56  Note. 

out  the  way  in  which  they  manifest  themselves  in  the  exposition 
of  Holy  Scripture. 

Several  of  Our  Lord's  Parables  are,  by  a  person  who  does  not 
minutely  study  them,  classed  roughly  together  as  conveying  pre- 
cisely the  same  lessons.  Thus,  the  Parables  of  the  Pounds  and 
the  Talents  are  supposed  to  have  precisely  the  same  scope.  The 
Lost  Sheep,  the  Lost  Piece  of  Money,  and  the  Prodigal  Son,  are 
all  regarded  as  Parables  on  Repentance — and  the  distinguishing 
details  dismissed  or  overlooked.  In  the  hands  of  a  great  scholar 
and  divine  (like  Archbishop  Trench)  each  of  these  Parables  has 
its  peculiar  lessons  and  delicate  applications — and  the  similarity 
between  them  is  no  longer  specific — only  generic — they  are  seen 
to  differ  as  much  as  various  species  of  grain  differ,  while  all  are 
grain. 

The  opposite  defect  of  over-refinement  and  multiplying  dis- 
tinctions, is  seen  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Harmonists.  Where 
two  narratives  of  Scripture  obviously  refer  to  the  same  event, 
they  are  induced,  by  some  trifling  discrepancy  of  detail,  to  regard 
them  as  occurring  on  different  occasions — a  flagrant  improbability 
on  the  score  of  common  sense.  Two  witnesses  giving  truly  their 
accoimt  of  the  same  event,  would  never  do  so  without  superficial 
discrepancies— for  no  two  minds  refract  the  same  event  at  pre- 
cisely the  same  angle. 

What  is  it  that  is  faulty  in  the  man  who  generalizes  hastily, 
and  the  man  who  distinguishes  too  finely  ?  It  is  the  Reason,  the 
mind,  the  judgment. 

Therefore,  Classification  is  an  essential  property  of  the  Reason, 
and  according  as  it  is  justly  or  viciously  performed,  the  Reason, 
is  in  a  sound  or  unhealthy  state. 


OHAPTEB  III. 

tui:    im:avini.v    ANALOGY    of   the    00 

SPLlA  II     WITH    REASON. 

"  H  tbr  brflinninfl  hMf  H)r  Woio,  anD  ttjr  Wort)  teas  toitb 
<5oO,  anO  ttoc  QPoiU  toas  GfoO." — John  i.  1. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity  is  the 
tystery  of  the  Christum   Religion.    For 

!v  of  all  mysteries  that  must  be  the  deepest 
and  most  mysterious,  whose  subject  is  the  Nature 
of  the  Invisible  and  Infinite  God. 

If  then  upon  all  teaser  mysteries  we  can  expect 
only  partial  light,  while  here  below;  much  more 
is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  upon  tin 

of  mysteries"  a  cloud  will  ever  rest.  Of 
Jehovah  it  is  written  that  "  clouds  and  darkness 

round  about  Him."     His  nature  and   attri- 
butes must  be  ever  (more  or  less)  shrouded  to  the 
human  intellect — at  all  events  while  "confined 
and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here," — while  cooped 
3* 


58  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

within  the  trammels  of  an  animal  nature.  The 
most  which  the  wisest  and  holiest  man  in  the 
world  can  hope  to  apprehend  of  such  a  mystery, 
is  but  little. 

Still,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  unques- 
tionably the  Truth  of  God,  and  the  Truth  cannot 
really  be  at  variance  with  an  enlightened  Reason, 
— we  may  hope  without  presumption,  under  the 
guidance  of  Scripture  and  the  illumination  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  to  gain  partial  glimpses  into  its  sig- 
nificance— glimpses  like  those  which,  through  the 
tumbling  sea  of  mist  beneath  his  feet,  a  wanderer 
in  the  mountains  catches  of  a  patch  of  verdure  on 
the  bosom  of  the  hill,  as  a  slant  ray  of  sunshine 
shoots  athwart  his  path — glimpses  sufficient  to 
make  us  easily  believe  that,  if  the  full  flood  of 
Divine  Light  could  but  be  poured  upon  the  soul, 
as  it  will  be  in  the  day  when  "  we  shall  know 
even  as  we  are  known,"  the  whole  doctrine  would 
stand  before  us  in  all  its  proportions,  as  a  fact 
absolutely  necessary  and  essential,  and  harmoniz- 
ing with  all  other  facts  in  the  whole  compass 
of  Truth. 

The  prosecution  of  the  subject,  of  which  these 
pages  treat,  leads  us  naturally  to  an  illustration  of 
this  Cardinal  Mystery. 

We  saw,  in  our  first  Chapter,  that  Speech  or 
Language  is,  as   a  fact  connected  with  Reason, 


ion  of  Speech  101M  Reason, 

066  who  van   .-peak— and 

!v,  all  who  can    B]  isonable 

to  this  role  have 

'.      On  *  band,  ii 

tit  be  alleged  thai  the  dumb  a*  able 

beings, — yet  the  dumb  cannot   Bpea] 

ther  might  be  argued,  mav  exist  without 

ch.    To  this  it  may  be  answered  that  actual 

Sound    is  not  essential   to   the   faculty   of  Speech. 

faulty  of  conveying  to  other  per- 
sons  (not    mere    feelings   altd   emotions,    but)   the 

processes  of  the  understanding.    The  dumb  can 

do  tlii-  (and   with  marvellous  intelligence)   U] 

their  lingers — showing  hereby  that  they  possess 

the  essentials  of  Speech. 

Again  it  might  be  alleged,  though  perhaps 
more  wantonly  than  in  earnest,  that  the  whole 
tribe  of  imitative  birds  speak,  and.  employ  certain 

vet   these  birds  are  not  rational,     r 
not  ther  le    that  all    creatures  which 

ik  are  reasonable  creatures.  Hut  here  again 
it  may  be  answered  that  sound — even  articulate 

ad — is    not    the    great    essential    of    Speech. 
Speech  is  the  power  of  conveying  I 
ical  met)  rocesses  of  one's  own  understand- 

ing.   Birds,  which  imitate  the  human  voice. 
imitators  and  nothing  more  :  the  WOfdfi  which  I 
1  Sec  Xote  to  Chapter  I. 


60  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

speak  they  never  originate,  but  catcli  them  up  from 
men, — nor  is  there  the  remotest  proof  that,  when 
they  utter  them,  they  connect  with  them  any  in- 
telligent meaning. 

And  let  me,  by  the  way,  call  attention  to  the 
circumstance,  that  an  Echo  stands  in  the  same  re- 
lation to  Inanimate  Nature  in  which  an  imitative 
Bird  stands  to  Animated  Nature.  An  Echo  is  the 
mimicry  of  Speech  by  matter.  The  language  of 
an  imitative  Bird  is  the  mimicry  of  Speech  by 
Animated  Nature.  Neither  Matter  nor  animated 
Nature  can  really  speak — neither  of  them  can 
communicate  to  others  (in  method  of  discourse) 
ideas  originated  by  themselves.  But  they  can 
imitate  Speech — or  rather  they  can  imitate  its  out- 
ward form, — of  the  intelligence,  which  constitutes 
its  essence  and  spirit,  they  are  not  partakers. 

We  must  be  prepared  then  to  admit  that 
Reason  and  Speech  are  essentially  connected  to- 
gether, intertwined  one  with  another.  The  Homer- 
ic epithets  [xepoip  and  avdijeig  (articulate  speaking) 
characterize  the  rational  creature  Man.  The 
power  of  Speech  inheres  in  the  faculty  of  Reason. 
Reason  is  revealed  by  Speech.  Speech  |s  the 
unfolding,  the  manifestation,  the  development, 
the  communication,  the  message,  the  utterance, 
the  outcoming,  the  revelation  of  Reason. 

Yet,  though  essentially  interwined, — though 


Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason .  61 

on   implies   the  power  of  Speech,  and 

Speech  implies  Reason, — Reason  and 

eh    are   clearly  different    faculties.      Do  you 
wish  to  BOO  them  apart,  in  order  to  uncertain  their 
distinctness!     We  can   show  them   to  you 
erance  one  from  another,  01  rather,  we  can   show 
them    to   you,   one    latent,  ami    the    other    active. 

Take  the  case  of  a  man  completely  absorbed  in 

his  own  reflections, — Sir  Isaac  Newton,  for  exam- 
ple, ,'ple   tall    to   the 
;nd.  in   thinking   out    the   law   of  gravitation. 

Wrapped  in  deepest  calculation  and self-oommun- 
ing,  pasi  down,  and  arms  fol< 

and  utters  DOl  a  word.  Speak  to  him — call  him 
by  name — he  does  not  answer,  lie  is  dumb — his 
min  from    the  outer  world.      Lay 

your  hand  on  the  shoulder  of  such  an  one, — he 
lo«.k<  up  with  an  exclamation  of  surprise,  and  you 
say  to  him — "So  you  have  found  your  ton: 
have  your"     Perha  i  be  reckoned  among 

the   accuracies  of  language,  that  we  do  not 
*•  V.'U  have  found  your  Speech*  hut  u  You  have 
found  your  tongue" — hereby  implying  that  the 
;lty  of  Speech  was  latent  in  him  all  the  while, 
but  that  its   instrument,  the  tongue,  had   b 
without  -he  had  not  spoken, — he 

had  not  iie  faculty  of  communicating 

his  ideas  to  others, — but  he  had  been  reasoning 


62  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

all  the  time,  and  if  Sir  Isaac  Newton  be  the 
case  imagined,  reasoning  to  some  purpose.  There 
is  an  instance  of  Eeason,  independent  of  Speech. 

However,  it  might  suffice  to  say,  by  way  of 
proving  their  distinctness,  that  the  words  Reason 
and  Speech  on  the  surface  convey  distinct  ideas  to 
every  mind. 

And  yet,  distinct  as  these  things  are,  Speech 
is  wrapped  up  in  Eeason  ; — so  that  wherever  the 
faculty  of  Eeason  is,  there  the  faculty  of  Speech 
must  be.  This  was  proved  in  the  last  Chapter, 
where  we  showed  that  Human  Language  supplies 
us  with  a  classification  of  objects,  by  assigning 
generic  words  to  embrace  a  great  number  of  indi- 
viduals. To  classify,  however,  is,  as  we  then 
pointed  out,  the  work  of  the  mind.  It  is  the 
mind  which,  contemplating  objects,  arranges  them 
under  different  heads.  Wherever  the  mind  or 
Eeason  exists,  it  must  have  this  power,  latent  in 
it,  of  contemplation  and  arrangement,  and  accord- 
ingly, wherever  the  mind  is,  there  must  be  in  em- 
bryo the  faculty  of  Speech.  So  that  if  we  were 
asked  which  of  the  two  is  the  earlier — the  Eeason 
or  the  Speech — our  answer  must  be,  that  they  are 
so  inextricably  intertwined  together,  that  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  is  the  earlier.  They  are 
coeval.  They  are  twin  faculties,  the  moment  of 
their  birth  the  same.     May  we  not  say  that  in  a 


Connexion  of  Speech  with  Reason. 

child,  as  a  general  role,  the  dew  Lopmenl  of  8p< 
ace  'exactly  with  the  development  of 

ondeistandingt 

;  ie  with  Light  and  Colour,  which  1  have 

ali-t  I  1   M  an  illu.-t rat i«m.      ('dour  and 

istiuct  things.  We  have  distinct  no- 
tions, when  we  pronoun,  OolOUT  and 
Light      But,  as  Colour  inheres  in  the  Light, — is 

a  natural  property  of  the  Light, — it  is  impossible 

to  say  with  Truth  either  that  Colour  existed  bet 

Light,  or  that  Light  existed  before  ( olour.     T! 

too,  are  twin  births.      At  the  same  point  of  time, 

when  the  M"M  High  issued  Hi-  first  creati 

Light  sprang  into  i  ■■•  and  Colour  with  it. 

Now  we  are  told  in  the  first  Chapter  of  ( I 
hat   Man  was  made  u  in  the  Image  of  God." 
We  cannot  understand  this  assertion  of  the  Lody 
of  Man.       For  God  is  incorporeal — "lie    i 
Spirit/'  saith  the  Scripture; — as  the  first  of  our 
An'  I  [e  hath  neither  Body,  Pa 

nor  Passions."     We  are  driven  then  to  the  < 
elusion  that  the  resemblanoG  between  God  and 

D — the  "Image,"  which  was  originally  stamped 
upon  OUT  Nature  in  the  minting  of  it, — stand* 
the  Mind  or  .  -in  that  part  which  dis- 

criminates us  from  tli e  brute. creation.    I  toy 

to  us  from  the  brute 
; — for  that  it  does  not  stand  in  the  soul 


64:  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

or  animal  nature,  may  be  inferred  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  brutes  have  this  animal  nature, 
and  yet  the  Image  of  God  is  never  said  to  have 
been  impressed  npon  them,  The  Spirit  or  Mind 
of  Man,  then,  presents  ns  with  an  Image  of  God; 
and  in  examining  the  Spirit  or  Mind  of  Man,  we 
may  expect — we  are  warranted  by  Holy  Scrip- 
ture in  expecting — to  find  some  adumbration, 
some  dim  shadowy  outline,  of  the  Nature  of  the 
Most  High. 

If,  however,  we  had  only  this  notice  of  Holy 
Scripture,  it  would  behove  us  to  be  very  cautious 
indeed  in  drawing  inferences  from  it.  The  sub- 
ject is  one  upon  which  Angels  may  well  fear  to 
tread, — into  wThich  only  a  fool  would  rush  with 
presumptuous  curiosity.  At  the  same  time,  while 
it  is  a  point  of  reverence  and  right  feeling  not  to 
seek  to  be  wise  beyond  what  is  written,  it  is  also 
a  point  of  holy  ambition,  to  seek  to  be  wise  up  to 
that  which  is  written.  And  there  is  another 
passage  (or  rather  there  are  many  other  passages 
of  Holy  Scripture)  which  throw' a  singular  light 
upon  the  subject  before  us.  They  are  those  in 
which  the  Second  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity 
is  called  " the  Word"  "  In  the  beginning "  (thus 
opens  St.  John's  Gospel ; — how  like  an  oracular 
voice,  dropping  from  heaven,  it  sounds, — how  full 
of  mystery  and  sublimity  !  )  "  was  the  Word,  and 


1  waa  with  ( tod,  and  the  Word  was  <  h 

•;i,  "the  Wt-nl,"  was  do(  original  will. 
i.      It  was  i  term  much  employed  by 

-,  to  <!«•:  emanatioii  from 

the  Deity.    St.  John  takes  it  up,  and adopl 

and    applies  it  to  Our   1  Lord  as  the  ( 

mation  from   Qod      I'Ut    it   matters  n<»t  at  all 

whether  he  invented  the  term,  <>r  adopted  it. 

has  adopted  it,  it  has   now  the  seal  of  Indura- 
tion,— and  we    must    helieve    that    in  the  ten: 
applied  to  Our  Lord,  there  IS  a  deep  signilica: 

which    perhaps  a    prayerful    consideration,  and 

comparison  of  other  inspired  notice-,  may  T9\ 
to  00. 

on  was  framed   in   the   Image  of 

God, — and  Our  Lord  is  called  the  Word  J  those 

the  two  Scriptural    intimations,  which  guide 

OB  by  the  hand  into  part  of  the  truth  respecting 

the  Divine  Nature. 

We   lie  that  Reason  involves  a  thing 

distinct  from  itself,  nam.  -h,  or  the  power 

•mmunicating  the  processes  of  the  Reason — 
so  that  whosoever  has  the  faculty  of  Reason,  has, 
in  the  faculty  of  Reason,  the  faculty  of  Speech  or 
of  the  Word. 

have  seen  that  though  Reason  wraps  up 
BCD  in  it  -nceive  of  Reason  as 


66  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

energizing  latently,  and  of  the  faculty  of  Speech 
as  having  no  exercise. 

And  we  have  seen  that  neither  Reason  nor 
Speech  can  make  any  claim  to  priority  of  exist- 
ence— that  they  are  twin  faculties,  born  at  the 
same  instant. 

Now  listen  to  what  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
has  gathered  from  the  Scripture  respecting  the 
Nature  of  God. 

First,  she  says,  that  there  is  a  Trinity  in  Unity, 
that  is,  more  than  one  Person  in  the  Divine  Na- 
ture. Man's  spirit,  the  Bible  says,  was  made  in  the 
Image  of  that  Nature.  And  in  Man's  spirit  there 
are  at  all  events  two  faculties,  Reason  and  Speech. 
The  Son,  or  Second  Person  in  the  divine  Nature, 
goes  by  the  name  of  "  the  Word  of  the  Father," 
that  is,  He  stands  to  the  Father  in  the  same  rela- 
tion as  that  in  which  the  Word,  or  Utterance,  or 
Speech,  stands  to  the  Reason  or  Understanding. 

Secondly :  St  John  intimates  that  there  was  a 
period  when,  although  both  Blessed  Persons  exist- 
ed, yet  the  Son  was  wrapped  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father, — when,  though  the  Word  was,  yet  the 
Word  came  not  forth.  "  The  only  begotten  Son, 
which  is  in  the  hosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  de- 
clared Him."  That  is  like  Reason,  with  the  fac- 
ulty of  Speech  latent  in  it, — not  put  forth. 

Thirdly :  the  Church  holds  and  proclaims  that 


Connc  speech  with  Rem 

Majesty  i  Persons  I  i  hat 

-  the  Father  i,  and  tl  tenia]  al 

— that  t:  to  attribute 

raid  be  to  fall  into  the  very  bar 

Bed  I'V  upwards  of  three  hundred 
:ops   assembled   in  Ootmd]   at  Kicaea. 
adnmbral  this  in  the  human  spirit  is  thai 

twin  birth  of  Reason  and  Speech,  to  which 

have  already  called  attention.     They  are  both  (as 

:ient  might  reply,  "the  Catho- 
Doetrine  is,  that  in  God  tin  A  only 

(which  I  could  nndersl 
and  to  seine  extent  realize) — but  two  distinct  Per- 
sons."    No  doubt  it  is  so.     And  perhaps  it 
be   shown    by    means   of  another    intimation    of 
[ptnre,  that  at  all  events  there  must  be  more 
than  one  Person  in  the  Godhead.     For  it  is  writ- 
that  k'  God  is  love  " — that  love  is  the  essen 
"re of  God.     Love  tool  His  nature,  long  a 
before  the  World  began,   before   there  were  any 
human  beings  to  love,  before  those  morning- 

ion  dawned  upon  the  brow  of  time, — before 
the  bad  sprung  into  i  «•    God  was 

c   from   all   eternity.     But   what   does    J. 
imply  ?     Does  it  not  imply  a  Person,  or  Persons, 
e  loved  ?     it' there  was  only  one  Person  in  the 
I'd'.  gigantic solitude  reigning  all  around 


G8  The  Heavenly  Analogy  of  the 

him,  could  He  be  Love  ?  would  it  not  be  subvert- 
ing the  definition  of  Love,  to  say  that  He  was  so? 
The  fact  is,  that  what  St.  Paul  says  of  a  Mediator, 
is  true  of  Love — "  a  Mediator  is  not  a  Mediator  of 
one  ;  " — there  must  be  two  parties  to  make  him 
a  Mediator.  Similarly  we  may  say,  "  Love  is 
not  of  one."  It,  too,  implies  more  than  one 
party. 

We  may  learn  from  what  has  been  said  that' 
there  is  no  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
Church,  however  mysterious  on  the  surface, 
which  will  not  by  and  by  reveal  to  us  something 
of  its  propriety  and  harmony,  if  we  diligently 
read  the  Word  of  God  with  thought  and  prayer, 
and  patiently  ponder  and  compare  its  statements. 
The  first  point  which  it  becomes  us  to  ascertain,  is, 
that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  from  God.  There 
are  many  books  of  evidence  (which  it  is  now  the 
fashion  to  depreciate)  which  have  quite  set  this 
question  at  rest  for  every  impartial  and  candid  in- 
quirer. When  it  is  set  at  rest  in  your  mind,  then 
the  remainder  of  your  path  is  clear.  You  must 
accept  every  thing  which  God  says  in  the  Scrip- 
ture, however  many  difficulties  it  may  present  to 
your  Reason.  But  your  difficulties  shall  diminish 
daily,  if  you  will  patiently  read  on,  fastening  your 
belief  on  the  sure  testimony,  and  praying  ear- 
nestly for  the  Light  of  the  Spirit.     Beautiful  dis- 


Connexion  qf  Speech  with  Reas<>  69 

•  shall  tarsi  upon  you,  as  you  pursue  this 

ries  which  shall   have  in  them  an 

;i  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  enjoy- 
ment, until  at  lea  enthralled  from  the  body, 

KWe  .-hall  k:.  i  a-  also  uv  arc  K  ."     So 

have  I  seen  a  traveller  catching  at  first  through 
!ol  boughs  disjointed  glimpses  of 

which  he  is  journeying,  but  by  and  by  he 

emerges   from   the  woodland,  and   a  sudden  turn 
brings  him  to  the  open  brow  of  a  hill,  and  th 
ben  !  the  City,  in  th  out- 

line of  its  fair    proportions,  its   pinnacles    smit- 
;m,  and  the  silver  river  inte 
maze  of  streets. 
W»-   I:,;-.  .  Reader,  that  Speech    in  the 

nature  of  man,  represents  Christ  in  the  Nature 
of  God.  This,  independently  of  the  Connexion  of 
Speech  with  Reason,  impresses  a  value  and  a 
dignity  upon  the  faculty  of  Speech.  When  you 
.  and  communicate  to  others  the  results  of 
IT  reasoning,  you  are  adumbrating  in  the  limits 
of  a  finite  nature  the  Nature  of  the  Infinite  One. 
Would  you  take  any  thing  which  represents 
Ckr;  intended  to  remind  us  of  Oh] 

and  make  it  the  instrument  and  minister  of  sin? 
Would   you,  for   exam]-!  the  con 

elements  of  the  Eucharist,  r  ing  (as  they 

do)  His  Body  and  Blood,  and  devote  them  to  the 


70  .    The  Heavenly  Analogy,  &c. 

purposes  of  intemperance  and  excess  ?  and  shall 
any  child  of  man  take  this  faculty  of  speech,  and 
degrade  it  in  vain,  or  profane,  or  unclean  com- 
munications, making  it  the  instrument  of  morally 
corrupting  others,  and  of  being  morally  corrupted 
himself  % 

Son  op  God,  Only  Begotten  of  the  Father,  who 
hast  sanctified  the  utterance  of  the  human  lips,  by 
taking  unto  Thyself  the  title  of  the  Word,  touch 
their  hearts  with  penitence,  who  have  so  offended, 
and,  as  we  would  all  flee  from  the  contagion  of  a 
pestilence  which  can  terminate  only  in  death,  so 
make  us  to  flee  from  the  moral  pestilence  of  filthy 
talking  and  idle  words,  and  set  Thy  watch  and 
seal  upon  the  door  of  our  lips  ! 


CHAPTER  IV. 

AN  IDLE   WORD   DEI  I  im.UE. 

ju  sbalt  not  flo  up  an&  Uoum  as  a  talruravrr  amoiifl  tljn 
people." — Lkviticts  xix.  10. 

Soi  boes  this  preoept  of  the  Law  in  liis 

Proverbs: — "A  fair'  -vi-alcth  secrets:  but 

he  that  is  of  a  faithful  spirit  concealeth  the  mat- 
ter." And  bap.  xx.  19:  uHe  that  goeth 
about  as  a  talebearer  revealeth  secrets :  therefore 
meddle  not  with  him  that  flattercth  with  his  lips." 
And  in  echoing  the  .  the  wise  king  illus- 
trates it.     For  the  law  contains  a  simple  prohibi- 

.  without  a  reason   assigned.     But  Solomon 
gives  a  reason.    One  chief  mischief  of  talebearing 
ia  apt  to  repeat  things  which 
have  1  him  in  confidence;  or,  at  all  v\< 

which   had    much    better   be  considered    as    < 
fidei  i  if  they  were  not  communicated  on 

that  express  understanding. 


72  An  Idle  Word 

It  is  a  startling  fact  that  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  preceptive  part  of  the  Bible  should,  deal 
with  sins  of  the  tongue,  and  deal  with  them  so 
severely.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  this  feature 
of  the  Scriptural  code  is  an  incidental  evidence  of 
its  having  come  from  a  supernatural  Source,  or,  in 
other  words,  being  inspired.  For  probably  no 
human  treatise  of  moral  philosophy  ever  gave  to 
words  such  an  importance  as  the  Holy  Scriptures 
assign  to  them.  Certainly  Aristotle's  great  trea- 
tise on  human  duty  ignores  words  altogether. 
And  one  can  see  that  in  any  estimate  of  moral 
subjects  made  by  mere  Reason,  the  words  of  men 
(as  being  after  all  a  passing  breath)  would  be 
taken  little  account  of,  and  the  attention  fastened 
simply  on  their  actions  and  sentiments.  But  not 
such  is  the  estimate  of  Him,  whose  "  thoughts  are 
not  as  our  thoughts."  Throw  all  the  precepts  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  into  one  code ;  and 
how  very  large  a  proportion  of  them  will  be  found 
to  turn  upon  words !  What  a  serious,  austere 
view  the  Sacred  "Writers  take  of  what  man  would 
call  slips  of  the  tongue  !  None  more  serious  and 
austere  than  Our  Blessed  Lord  Himself,  who  yet 
was  by  no  means  an  austere  man,  who  came  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  and  went  into  all  societies, 
shunned  no  company,  and  whose  Sacred  Heart 
was  a  fountain  of  most  pure  and  beautiful  com- 


I  th<  A 
passion,  in   which   was   inirr«»ivd  q  of  the 

her,  and  apathy  of  < k>d  with 

all  Sis  creatures,    The  Pharisees,  convinced  of 
the  1  >h  I  lm>t,  had  been  belying 

their  lotionci   by   attributing   Hi-   workB   to 

Beelzebub,   and   inwardly  flattering    tin 
donl  ith  the  thought  thai  their  disbelief  lay 

in  wordfl  onlv,  not  in  the  sentiments  of  the  heart. 
Our  Blessed  Lord  solemnly  warns  then  that  this 

.  word.-  and  sentiments  was  in 

fad  pardonable  sin  ;  tin'  sin  against  the 

•  ;     and    then,    as    His     manner 
Coming  down  from  the  extreniest  form  <»!' 
He  was  condemning  to  its  milder  and  more  <\- 
kble  shapes,  Eesaid,  "But  I  say  unto  you,  That 
rord  that  men  shall  Speak,  they  shall 
give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  Judgment. n 

And  where  Our  Lord  sets  the  keynote,  all  the 
writers  of  Holy  Scripture  chime  in  unison. 

i  all  the  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  whieh 

have  reference  to  foolish  talk,  had  talk,  or  too  much 
talk;  and  you  will  have  a  very  large  numher  of 
verses.  Add  to  these  the  precepts  of  St.  Paul 
forbidding  corrupt  commnnioarion,  and  prescribing 
speech  with  grace  seasoned  with  salt.  Close 
li.-t  with  that  paragraph  of  t  :le, 

which  forms  the  body  of  the  third  chapter,  and 
which  speaks  in  such  awful  terms  of  the  wide- 
4 


74  An  Idle  Word 

spread  mischief  done  by  sins  of  the  tongue,  and 
with  that  later  passage  of  the  same  Epistle,  in 
which  the  Apostle  reiterates  with  emphasis  the 
caution  against  swearing  contained  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  "  But  above  all  things,  my  breth- 
ren, swear  not ;  "  and  you  have  not  only  a  portion 
of  space  devoted  to  this  subject  whicji  seems  to  mere 
Reason  disproportionate  to  its  merits;  but  also, 
which  is  more  remarkable,  the  warnings  against 
this  class  of  sin  are  more  deeply  serious  in  tone  than 
those  against  almost  any  other. 

Now  whatever  we  may  imagine  in  the  vanity 
of  our  minds,  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  the  Word 
of  God  has  Reason  on  its  side.  And  we  may  be 
quite  sure  also  that  we  shall  have  a  glimpse  of  that 
Reason,  if  we  will  but  look  for  it  carefully  and  de- 
voutly. Physicians,  it  has  been  well  said,  make 
an  immediate  and  accurate  judgment  of  health  by 
the  state  of  the  tongue.  And  there  is  the  same 
connexion  between  a  healthy  tongue  and  a  healthy 
condition  of  body  as  between  a  sound  heart  and 
sound  wholesome  w^ords.  The  tongue  is  symp- 
tomatic in  both  cases.  Our  Lord  says  so.  "A 
good  man,  out  of  the  good  treasure  of  the  heart, 
bringeth  fortli  good  things  :  and  an  evil  man,  out 
of  the  evil  treasure,  bringeth  forth  evil  things  ; " 
"  Out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth 
speaketh," 


h 
there  is  another  analogy  betweeu  mental 

and  ImmUIv  health,  which  is  still  more  to  thi' point. 

-titutiou 

U  bodies  is  often  produced  by  the  moal  trifling 

-c>.    The  hli-ht  which  destroys  some  artiel 

nance,  the  pestilence  which  lavs  low  its  thoii- 

rhapa  traceable  to 

the  presence  in  the  air,  or  in  food,  of  certain   very 
minute  animalcule-,  which  are  taken  into  the  plant 
Of    into    the    human    sv.-' 

throngh  the  Lunge,    These  animalcule-  are  possibly 

nail,  that  it  requires  a  powerful  d 
disooyerthem.    And  in  the  body  itself  the  ulti- 
mate nodes,  whose  arrangement  001 
health  or  disease,  an'  so  very  insignificant  that  in 

many  08808  the  disorder  could  never  bfl  :ue<l 

by  the  eye.    An  almost  infinitesimal  quantity  of 
poison,  insinuated  into  the  living  body  through  8 

puncture  or  a  scratch,  will  spread   like  wildfire 
through    the    System,    and    either    coinmun: 

mortal  disease,  or  cause  mortification  in  a  vital 

part.    These  are  all  instances  in  Nature, in  which 

its,  trifling  in  hulk  and  to  the  eye,  have  vet   a 

tent  effect  on   the  entire  frame,  both  of 

:  d  animals.     AVhy  should  there  he  no 

such  of  similar  apparent  insignifl- 

canc  ot' similar  deadly  force — in  the  moral 

world?     We  believe  that  there  are  such.     We  he- 


76  An  Idle  Word 

lieve  that  words  are  such  an  agent.  Things  in 
themselves  light  and  insignificant,  blown  up  like  so 
many  bubbles  from  the  surface  of  the  character,  to 
burst  as  soon  as  they  are  formed.  Things  said  in 
a  moment  of  excitement,  and  forgotten  as  soon  as 
the  excitement  which  gave  birth  to  them  is  over. 
Things  as  transient  as  the  morning  cloud  and 
the  early  dew.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  they 
are  unaccompanied  by  serious  effects.  The  moral 
frame  of 'each  one  of  us  is,  like  the  animal  frame, 
continually  taking  in  influences,  and  assimilating 
nourishment  from  all  sorts  of  sources.  The  words 
of  other  men,  the  casual  expressions  of  their  sen- 
timents, have  a  strong  influence  upon  our  char- 
acters. Our  own  words  have  a  reflex  influence 
upon  -ourselves ;  not  only  coming  from  the  heart, 
but  reacting  upon  the  heart  which  sent  them 
forth. 

Thus  far,  we  have  offered  some  observations 
which  may  justify  our  regarding  the  Idle  Word  as 
a  matter  of  sufficient  importance  to  form  the  sub- 
ject of  a  separate  treatise.  In  this  and  the  follow- 
ing chapter  we  propose  to  define  "  an  Idle  Word  " 
from  the  Decalogue,  before  considering  the  sig- 
nificance of  Our  Lord's  language  in  so  denominat- 
ing it.  The  whole  of  human  duty  really  founds  in 
the  Decalogue.  There  is  no  precept  of  the  Gospel 
which  is  not  to  be  found  in  germ  and  principle  in 


dq/kutfrom  ike  Dtoalogus, 

imandm<  rant 

;i.     And   the  in'  ' ndy  tll< 

mandinents,  the  mure  shall  we  be   impressed  with 
tin1    great     p  of   the    outline    of    Human 

Duty,  which  is  hero  traced  by  tln«  finger  of  God 

Him-elf. 

The  Decalogue  falls,  11  know,  into  two 

tables,  one  of  which  guides  man  in  his  relations  to 

r  in  his  relations  to  his  l'ellow-nien. 

Now  it  is  rarely  observable  that  in  each  Table 

precept  respecting  words;  in  the 
,  "Thousha!  be  the  Name  of  :' 

thy  (nxl  in   vain;-'  in  the  second,  *-Tii  >:;  -halt  not 
bear  dust  thy  neighbour."   Aceord- 

ing  to  the  ordinary  (though  by  no  means  univer- 
sally Ij  division  of  the  tables,  the  first  con- 
tains four  commandments,  the  latter  six.  Tim 
this  code  of  moral  precept-  be  as  we  believe, s  per- 
fect and  exact  one,  one-fourth  part  of  our  duty  to 
God,  and  one-sixth  part  of  our  duty  to  man,  have 
to  do  with  the  wprds  which  we  speak  of  them  re? 
ctively. 

In  t  :it  chapter  we  shall  deal  exclusively 

with  the  .mmandment,  reserving  the  Third 

for  subsequent  consideration. 

30  to  which   the  Ninth  Com- 
mandment applies  is  that  of  bearing  fid 
mony  to  the  detriment  of  another  in  a  court  of 


78  An  Idle  Word 

justice,  a  sin  so  universally  abhorred  that  it  is 
superfluous  to  point  out  or  dwell  upon  the  hei- 
nousness  of  it.  But  let  us  attempt  to  extract  the 
principle  of  this  Commandment ;  for  the  court  of 
judicature,  and  the  solemn  oath,  and  the  other 
formalities  of  the  law,  are  only  the  husk  in  which 
the  principle  is  wrapped  up.  The  principle,  then, 
is  this:  that  toe  shall  in  no  respect  injure  our 
neighbour's  reputation.  It  will  not  be  denied  that 
reputation  is  a  very  precious  treasure.  Life  would 
not  be  worth  having,  if  a  man  had  no  sort  of  credit 
from  the  society  in  which  he  moved,  if  he  stood 
low  in  the  esteem  of  every  soul  which  formed  his 
little  circle.  To  be  respected  by  others  who  know 
us,  to  have  some  influence  with  them,  to  carry  some 
weight,  this  is  in  itself  a  form  of  life.  Says  St.  Fran- 
cis of  Sales,  "We  live  three  lives,  a  corporal  life 
which  stands  in  the  union  of  soul  and  body ;  a  spirit- 
ual life  which  stands  in  the  grace  of  God  ;  and  a 
civil  life  which  stands  in  our  reputation.  The  cor- 
poral life  is  stifled  by  murder ;  the  spiritual  life  is 
stifled  by  sin ;  and  the  civil  life  is  stifled  by  slander, 
which  is  a  species  of  murder,  inasmuch  as  it  destroys 
a  species  of  life."  It  is  most  true.  A  blow  aimed 
at  a  man's  reputation  injures  him  quite  as  effectu- 
ally, though  in  another  form,  as  a  blow  aimed  at 
his  body ;  and  most  men  are  far  more  sensitive  to 
the  first  of  these  injuries  than  to  the  second ;  they 


. 


.lllllllllil*  »l     lnut'l  I     I 


the  caJ 

than  the  weapon  of  the  highwayman.    Tl 
user  of  the  brethr  iven  In  8< 

to  the  author  ;   and  thi  id  in 

the  holy  volume  by  the  oarrativi  mpl 

to  rain  the  fair  reputation  which  Job  enjoyed  In 
the  Conn  of  Heaven,    The  dander*  r  th<  □ 
imitation  of  the  devil ;  and,  aa  children  aci  in  im- 
itation of  their  parents,  he  may  be  truly  called 

devil's  child. 

r.ut  the  ninth  |  i  f  the  law  r 

which  tall  far  >hort  of  slander.      Slan< 

faUeo&SL'vuon  to  the  detriment  of  our  neighbour's 

character.      But  in  l'aet  a  tion  to  t ; 

ment  of  his  character  fa  forbidden,  whether  it  be 

true  01  false.      Some  one  perhaps  will  say  :  "  I  do 
not  see  this  in  the  Commandment:  it  is  false  wit- 

-  against  our  neighbour,  not  any  witneae  against 
him  which   is   forbidden. "     But  consider  wh 
hazard  even  a  substantially  true  assertion  runs  of 
hen.  in   the  general    impre-i.-u   created  by 

it.      The  bare  fact  alleged  may  be  true  enough,  but 
if  none  of  the  evidence  in  favour  of  the  I 

I    none  of   the    extenuating  circumstances    be 
attag  by  side  with  the  :  violate  truth 

in  tl  .four  words  upon  th 

though  the  particular  details  of  them  may  be  cor- 
rect.    It'  we  exhibit  a  man's  vices  only,  and  con- 


80  An  Idle  Word 

ceal  the  proportion  which  those  vices  bear  to  his 
virtues,  we  calumniate  him  quite  as  effectually,  as 
if  we  ascribe  to  hirn  a  vice  which  he  does  not 
possess.  A  man  may  have  a  defective  feature  or 
features,  and  yet  the  general  proportion  of  his 
person  may  be  so  good,  and  the  general  cast  of  his 
countenance  so  pleasing,  that  the  ill  effect  of  the 
features  which  are  awry  is  either  modified,  or 
entirely  carried  off.  It  is  an  untrue  representation 
of  that  man  to  say  merely  that  he  has  too  promi- 
nent an  eye,  or  too  thick  and  coarse  a  lip ;  that  may 
be  the  case,  but  it  is  not  a  fair,  because  it  is  not  a 
complete,  description  of  his  personal  appearance. 
And,  similarly,  if  my  neighbour  has  been  overtaken 
(perhaps  by  surprise)  in  a  grievous  fault,  and  if  I, 
for  want  of  better  matter  to  entertain  my  company 
withal,  blaze  abroad  this  fault  of  his,  but  am 
wholly  silent  as  to  his  good  character  up  to  that 
time,  and  as  to  the  prayers  and  struggles  against 
that  particular  sin  which  he  may  have  made,  my 
witness  against  him  becomes  as  certainly  false  in 
the  general  impression  created  by  it,  and  therefore 
as  mischievously  injurious,  as  if  I  stated  of  him 
what  was  not  matter  of  fact.  In  a  word,  if  a  fair 
account  of  a  man's  faults  and  sins  is  to  be  given  in 
conversation,  the  common  rule  of  justice  must  be 
attended  to,  that  evidence  shall  be  heard  for  the 
defendant ;  which  if  it  were  done,  a  true'  verdict 


81 

might  be  ar  lint 

e?id  1.  dot  doefl  any  party  ap- 

[nterests  of  the  defendant,  so  that  the 

[>o   being   false,   and 
ei  idenoe  by  which  it  is  arrived  at  ii  t«>  all  intents 
and  \>\u\K)seafal8e  witness. 

This  consideration  evidently  ma] 
ingly  difficult  for  us,  and  practically  all  hut  im- 
possible to  say  any  thing  to  our  neighbour's  disad- 
vantage in  common  conversation,  which  shall  not 

ral  effect  on  the 

minds  of  the  hearers.     If  they  gathered  nn  other 

from  our  words,  than  that  the  all 
ti.»n  were  true  as  an  isolated  fact,  it  might  be  all 
well  and  good.      Bat  this  we  know  from  our  own 
experience  they  do.     With  the  speed   of 

lightning  we  all  of  us  proceed  from  adverse  f 
to  a  general  unfavourable  judgment,  on  a  man's 
character,  and  the  devil  being  in  the  ear  of  the 
company  as  well  as  in  the  tongue  of  the  i 
the  thought  rises  up  instantaneously  in  their  minds, 
"  lias   such   a   man  indi  B   this   or    thai  I 

:i  what  a  villain  he  must  be?  how  must  all 
confidence  in  him  be  at  an  end  !  " 

One  element  of  miachii  f  in  the  habits  of  the 
talebearer  has  been    thus   exhibited.      The   t 

per  can  hardly  escape  the  charge  of  being 
detractor.      But  even  without   poeitivi  'ion 

4* 


82  An  Idle  Word 

he  may  do  great  mischief  by  disclosing  private 
confidences,  or  things  which  had  better  be  con- 
sidered as  such.  The  confidences  which  are  so 
disclosed  are  generally  of  a  petty  and  insignificant 
kind ;  idle  gossip  is  usually  the  sphere  in  which 
such  communications  live  and  move  and  have 
then'  being,  according  to  that  word  of  the  Apos- 
tle, which  attributes  this  particular  form  of  sin  to 
women  without  families,  who  have  nothing  to  do : 
"  Withal  they  learn  to  be  idle,  wandering  about 
from  house  to  house  "  (how  clear  an  echo  have  we 
here  of  the  Mosaic  precept,  "  Thou  shalt  not  go  up 
and  down  as  a  talebearer  among  thy  people ") ; 
and  not  only  "  idle,  but  tattlers  also,  and  busy- 
bodies,  speaking  things  which  they  ought  not." 
And  because  of  the  usually  contemptible  charac- 
ter of  such  gossip,  it  is  not  sufficiently  considered 
how  real  an  enemy  to  society  the  man  or  woman 
who  indulges  in  it  is.  One  great  difference  be- 
tween God's  estimate  of  sin  and  ours  is,  that  God 
considers  a  sin  in  its  tendency  and  natural  opera- 
tion, apart  from  all  the  checks  and  hindrances 
which  impede  its  full  development.  Man,  on  the 
other  hand,  judges  of  it,  not  by  the  mischief  which 
it  has  a  tendency  to  do,  but  by  that  which  it  act- 
ually does.  To  see  the  full  evil  of  revealing  con- 
fidences, we  must  consider  what  the  result  to  So- 
ciety Would  be,  if  every  one  revealed  them.     Sup- 


th    !>■  83 

■  that  t:  nan, 

\\\  to  Kris  family  and  friends, 
abroad  when  he  has  attained  to  i 
nenoe  and  is  in  i  position  of  naaftthiess :  >\\y\ 
that  every  mini-'  ligion  thought  hi 

liberty  to  divulge  tin1  bbci  trusted  t<>  him  by 

bnrden<  ion  ;  ^ii] >j >< >-c*  that 

the  secret  history  of  many  a  family  which  stands 
will  before  the  world  and  possibly  fa  at  the  head 

divnlged  by  <>ne  of  its  meml 
onqnestionably  many  facts  would  thus  be  brought 

t<»  light  which  arc  now  little  dreamt  of  J   hut  what 
would    become  Of   that    OOnft  man 

and    man,  on   which    the   whole   social    fabric    i> 
built  I    Trust  in  our  fallow-men,  which   is  the 

foundation  of  all   social  virtues,  and  which   is  so 

■utial  to  the  love  of  them,  would  he  at  an  end 

<ver.     And  I  believe  it  would  not  be  long  bc- 

tmst  in  (iod,  which  is  the  foundation  of  all 

religions  virtues,  would  take  its  flight  also. 
The  safe  rule  to  be  deduced  from  I 

ions  as  to  the  government  of  the  tongu 

Society,  is  to  stand  at  a  very  respectful  di 

i  all  such  topics  as  our  neighbour's  conduct 

and  :•.      We  shall  escape  all  risk  of  d< 

him  injury,  if  we  never  repeat  any  thing 

have  heard  to  his  disadvantage ;  and  if  to  this  we 

add  the  imply  (and  with 


84  An  Idle  Word 

exaggeration)  what  we  know  in  his  favour,  when 
we  hear  him  attacked,  we  shall  not  only  be  free 
from  the  charge  of  wronging,  but  also  do  some- 
thing to  right  him  in  the  estimate  of  others. 

Of  course  this  rule,  like  all  other  rules,  must 
be  understood  with  those  qualifications  which  com- 
mon sense,  other  precepts  of  Scripture,  and  the 
very  principle  of  the  rule  itself  imply.  Circum- 
stances may  and  do  arise,  in  which  it  is  right  and 
necessary  to  take  away  a  man's  natural  life.  Not 
that  even  in  this  case  our  duty  to  our  neighbour 
is  for  an  instant  suspended ;  but  our  duty  to  a 
single  neighbour  is  overruled  by  our  duty  to  Soci- 
ety. The  murderer  is  rightly  executed,  the  care 
which  the  Law  has  for  the  lives  of  innocent  sub- 
jects overruling  the  care  which  it  has  for  the  life 
of  a  single  guilty  one.  And,  similarly,  circum- 
stances may  arise  (and  do  arise)  in  which  it  is  not 
necessary  only,  but  right,  to  say  things  adverse  to 
our  neighbour's  fair  fame,  and  thus  to  take  away 
his  civil  life.  It  is  a  positive  charity  to  expose 
impostors  who  deceive  mankind;  of  a  wolf  in 
sheep's  clothing  we  shall  do  well  to  point  out  the 
claws,  and  to  show  the  inconsistency  of  his  life 
with  his  professions,  lest  he  should  devour  other 
sheep;  and  this  holds  good,  whether  the  person 
against  whom  Society  is  to  be  put  on  its  guard  be 
vicious  in  practice  or  erroneous  in  principle.     Er- 


-/</■''     ///■"     '/•■  /a  .//  ;/  • .  86 

ill   fundamental   points  of  Religion    i 

ingly  perilous  to  young  and  rim]  j  and  it 

maudlin,  spurious  charily,  too  popular  at 

lent  day,— nay,  if  we  are  in  a  position  to  teach 
and  influent  .  it  may  be  die  ruin  of  * 

k>u1, — to  Bali  m  with  unc- 

tuous flattery  of  the  life  of  their  professors.    Not 

lid  the  ApOStle,  who    is    tl  tuple  of 

the  grace  of  Love  in  a  sinful  man.  St.  John  did 
not  think  that  pretty  philosophical  sentiments  and 
a  blameless  life  were  to  compound  for  vital  error 
in   doetri  er  transgresseth,"  ori 

••and  abideth  not  in  the  doctrine  of  Oh 
hath  not  God:  he  that  abideth  in  the  doctrine  of 

[fit,  hath  both  the  Father  and  the  Son.  If 
there  come  any  unto  you,  and  bring  not  this  doc- 
trim  .  him  not  into  your  house,  neither  bid 
bim  God  speed." 

But    these    and   similar   qualifications   having 

D  made,  it  remains  for  us  seriously  to  put  it  to 
our  own  consciences, — "How  often,  when  1  have 

ad  abroad  sometbing  to  another's  disadvan- 
<  ked  another's  character,  have  I 

I  justified  in  so  doing  by  considerations  of  the 

■rests  of  Society,  or  the  interests  of  truth?" 
And  remember,  in  self-examination  on  this  point, 
that  our  unfavourable  testimony  may  have  really 
more  or  less  1  one  of  yet 


86  An  Idle  Word 

may  not  have  been  intended  by  ourselves  to  do 
so.  There  may  possibly  have  been  good  grounds 
for  bearing  witness  against  our  neighbour ;  but 
we  did  not  proceed  to  it  upon  these  grounds,  but 
merely  from  want  of  something  better  to  say, 
mixed  up  perhaps  with  a  grain  or  two  of  personal 
dislike. 

I  must  just  glance,  before  concluding,  at  the 
word  "  false,"  in  the  Ninth  Commandment,  and 
give  it  a  prominence  which  it  has  not  received 
hitherto.  Insincerity  is  falsehood ;  and  all  insin- 
cere apologies  for  our  neighbour,  or  commenda- 
tions of  him  (an  extreme  into  which  some  well- 
meaning  persons  are  apt  to  run  from  a  dread  of 
calumny),  are  to  be  avoided.  Though  we  should 
endeavour,  if  possible,  to  defend  him  when  at- 
tacked, it  must  always  be  by  honest  arguments, 
such  as  we  ourselves  think  to  be  valid  evidence  in 
his  favour.  Above  all,  we  must  beware  of  salv- 
ing over  a  personal  aversion  by  hollow  and  false 
compliments,  a  hateful  hypocrisy  which  transpires 
very  quickly,  and  which  never  fails  to  inspire  the 
listener  with  a  just  disgust.  Let  us  remember 
that  "  he  that  hideth  hatred  with  lying  lips  (as 
well  as  he  that  uttereth  a  slander),  is  a  fool." 
Let  us  take  heed  of  coming  under  that  animad- 
version of  the  wise  man  :  "  He  that  hateth  dissem- 
bleth  with  his  lips  "  (maketh  his  voice  gracious), 


87 

i    np   deceit   within    him.       W 
•  him  not :   lor  tip 
minationa  in  his  heart"       \Vhoae  hatred  is 

[nesa  dial]  he  iho1 
gregation.'3 

:  a  mora] 
duty,  which,  insignificant  as  it  seems  at  first,  wo 
have  shown  to  have  an  important  bearing  on  the 
welfare  of  Society.  Lei  none  imagine  that  mob  a 
topic  is  unsj'iritual  off  unevangelicaL    We  fa 

it  is  true,  nothing  to  preach   hut  the  unsearchable 

riches  oi  an  tliere  are  unsearchable 

riches    i:i    Hi-   Example  as  well  afl  in  Bifi 

ment,  in    His  precepts  as  well  U  in  I  lis  promisee, 

which  equally  require  to  be  unfolded  in  the  view 

of  His  Church,  And  in  order  to  connect  with 
IIi>  pare  and  spotless  life  the  precept  which  we 
have  I  tempting  to  illustrate,  we  need  only 

adduce   the  words  of   Psalm   x\\,  which   i 
acription,  by  anticipation,  of  that  perfectly  right- 
d,  whom  God  would  accept  in  virtue  of 
.  meritorious  obedience,  who  should  abide 
for  ever  in  the  true  tabernacle  which  the  Lord 

shed,  and  not  man;  who  should  rest  for  < 
upon  tli:  ly  Hill,  whereof  Mount  Xion  was 

but    a    type: — "Lord,  who   shall    abide    in    Thy 
!1    dwell   in  Thy  holy  hill  \ 


88    An  Idle  Word  defined  from  the  Decalogue. 

.     .     .     He  that  backhiteth  not  with  his  tongue, 
nor  doeth  evil  to  his  neighbour,  nor  taketh  up  a 

reproach  against  his  neighbour He  that 

doeth  these  things  shall  never  be  moved." 


CIIAPTKU  V. 

AN   EDLH   WORD  I     nOH 

"  riiou  sbnlt  not  tnhr  the  "Xante  of  tbr  HorD  thn  (Sob  in  bain  I 
for  tbr  HorD  toill  not  bola  ftim  fluiltlrss  tbnt  tabctb  Wis  Xamc 
In  bain." — Exodus  xjl  7. 

This  precept,  like  the  rest  of  God's  command- 
Ingly  broad.  For  by  "  the  Name 
of  God"  is  not  to  be  understood  merely  the  d< 
nation  in  speech  of  the  Divine  Being.  K;un 
old  times  bang  significant  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  persons  bearing  them,  the  Name  of  God  in 
Boly  Scripture  is  often  put  lor  the  character  and 
attributes  of  the  Divine  Being :  the  most  remarka- 
ble example  of  which  mode  of  speaking  is  to  bo 
found  in  the  proclamation  of  God's  Name  to 
Koees,  that  proclamation  being  nothing  else  than 
an  i  of  God's  attributes  in  Mos. 

:  u  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and 
gracious,  long-suli'ering,  and  abundant  in  good- 
ness and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  for- 


90  An  Idle  Word 

giving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin,  and  that 
will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  If  in  the 
Third  Commandment  the  Name  of  God  be  under- 
stood in  this  broad  sense,  every  sort  of  profane- 
ness,  all  desecration  of  things  connected  with  God 
will  be  forbidden  by  it.  It  is,  however,  our  pres- 
ent purpose  to  deal  with  it  only  so  far  as  it  for- 
bids wrong  words,  against  which  in  the  first  in- 
stance it  is  directed. 

There  is  a  great  resemblance  between  the  Deca- 
logue and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  indicating  to  a  thought- 
ful mind  that  both  proceeded  from  one  and  the 
same  Author.  The  Decalogue  falls  into  two  tables, 
the  Lord's  Prayer  no  less  obviously  into  two  dis- 
tinct classes  of  petitions.  The  first  table  of  the 
Decalogue  prescribes  our  duty  to  God ;  the  sec- 
ond our  duty  to  our  fellow-men.  And  similarly 
the  first  section  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  contains 
petitions  for  God's  honour,  kingdom,  and  service  ; 
the  second  section  petitions  for  the  supply  of 
man's  wants. 

We  are  apt  to  think  our  whole  duty  discharged, 
if  we  have  been  blameless  in  our  conduct  towards 
our  fellow-men.  But  the  Law  of  God  corrects 
that  error  with  a  high  hand,  teaching  us  that  the 
most  fundamental  duty  of  man,  that  which  has 
the  earliest  claim  upon  him,  is  "to  love  the  Lord 
his  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all  his  mind. 


dqjfadfrom  th>-  Dialogue*  91 

and  with  all  I,  and  with  all   his  strength. '' 

■,  similarly,  we  axe  apt  t<»  think  that  in  pra 

thing  more  than  the  supply 
our  own  needs,  bread,  m  1  so 

i.     Hut  the  Lord's  I'nu  i 
i  a  high  hand,  teaching  oa  thi  honour, 

Eh  cause  and  aervioe,  Ik  to  the  b< 

.!  hifl  own  needs. 
And  to  to   particulars,  there  is  no  one 

who  does  not  see  the  marked  resemblance  be- 
Tbird  Oommandment  ("Thou  shalt 
take  the  Name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain"; 
and  tlie  first  petition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  (w  Sal- 
lowed be  Thy  Name").  The  Commandment  pro- 
hibits that,  the  opposite  of  which  the  Prayer 
solicits.     We  are  forbidden  not  to  te  God's 

ie :  and  we  pray  that  we  may  consecrate  or 
hallow  it.  When  we  sincerely,  in  a  spirit  of  love 
and  reverence,  call  God  "  our  Father,"  we  fulfil 
the  •mmandment,  professing  I  Jim  to  be 

our  God,  and  repudiating  all  other.    When  we 
.  with  the  spirit  and  with  the  understanding 
hieh  art  in  Heaven,"  we  fulfil  the  second 
Commandment;  for  hereby  we  indicate  that  the 
God  we  wor&hip  ia  in  Keaven,  beyond  the  barri 
of  gross  matter,  and  that  therefore  we  must 
harbour  any  sensuous  conception  of  IJim,  or  m 
material  representation.    Thus  the  invocation 


92  AnldU  Word 

of  the  Lord's  Prayer  embodies  the  two  first  Com- 
mandments. And  the  first  petition  which  follows 
the  invocation  is  an  echo  of  the  third. 

The  extreme  form  of  sin  forbidden  by  this 
Commandment  is  perjury ;  a  solemn  calling  upon 
God  to  attest  that  which  we  well  know  to  be  false. 
But  the  spirit  and  principle  of  the  precept  forbids 
also  all  profaneness  of  expression ;  and  I  cannot 
help  pointing  to  the  ground  assigned  for  the  pro- 
hibition, as  remarkably  illustrating  the  fact  ad- 
verted to  in  our  last  Chapter,  namely,  the  serious 
estimate  of  words  which  Almighty  God,  and  those 
wrho  are  the  exponents  of  His  mind  and  will,  seem 
to  form.  "  For  the  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guilt- 
less that  taketh  His  Name  in  vain."  The  Law- 
giver seems  to  glance  at  a  different  estimate  of 
this  subject,  popular  and  current  among  those  on 
whom  the  restriction  is  laid.  It  is  as  if  He  had 
said,  "  Man  may  hold  words  in  no  account — may 
deem  them  a  wind  that  passeth  away,  and  cometh 
not  again.  What  can  be  the  harm,  he  may  ask, 
of  a  word  spoken  against  conviction,  and  with  a 
mental  reservation,  if  the  sentiments  of  the  heart 
be  right  ?  We  cannot  suppose  that  for  so  slight 
a  thing  as  a  word  God  will  judge  us,  though  we 
could  easily  conceive  that  He  might  do  so  for  neg- 
lect of  His  Worship,  or  any  practical  disrespect 
shown  to  His  Ordinances."     In  answer  to  these 


reasoning  of  the  Datura]  heaitj  God  as 

that  He  will  l»v  do  d  id  him  guiltiest  that 

takctb  His   Name  in  vain.      1 1 1 :  will  by  DO  D* 
do    BO)   however   man    illicit    act  ;    fend    IK'    will 

7ffaw,  that    IS,  He 

will  account  profaneneas  of  I  to  be  a  se- 

offenee. 

current  profanenooaoB  of  (Uprooaion,  into 

which  Christians,  good  and  serious  in  the  main, 

aright  he  entrapped  from  want  of  reflection,  or  in 

a  moment  of  excitement,  arc  as  folk* 

1.    All  ;  :011s  which  take  the  form  of  an 

Oath,  whether  the  name  of  the  true  Qod   he  intro- 
duced in  them  or  not ;  all  ejaculations  in  BUrpriae 
ment,  wliich  imply  an  invocation  of  Cod. 

The  original  design  of  the  Commandment 

probahlv  to  draw  a  hroad  line  of  demarcation  hc- 
n  the  peculiar  people  of  God,  and  those  con- 
tiguous heathen  nations  (the  Egyptians  specially) 
ly    interlarded   their  disoonTBe    with    the 
names  of  their  deities,  I>is,  Apis,  Jupiter,    II<r- 
i.     T<>  a  certain  extent  the  pre- 
fect; for  the  Jews  never  allowed  the 
name  Jehovah  (meaning  the  Self-existent  One,  or 
Sf  that  was  and  that    is,  and  that  is  to  © 
pass  their  lips.     When  they  came  across  it  in  the 
Old  Testament,  as  they  did  in   every  page,  I 

another  word  of  lower  import,  not  ex- 


94  An  Idle  Word 

clusively  appropriated  to  God;  nor  was  it  ever 
lawful  to  pronounce  this  sacred  Name  except  for 
the  High  Priest  once  a  year  on  the  great  day  of 
Atonement,  when  he  announced  forgiveness  to 
the  people  in  the  name  of  JeJwvah.  But  while  in 
this  formal  superstitious  manner  they  observed 
the  letter  of  the  Commandment,  they — at  least  in 
the  later  period  of  their  history — evaded  its  spirit, 
and  when  God  Incarnate  came  among  them,  He 
found  them  using  all  manner  of  conversational 
oaths,  swearing  by  heaven,  by  the  earth,  by  the 
Temple,  by  Jerusalem,  and  so  forth,  in  all  which 
forms  of  speech  they  recognized  no  guilt.  It  is 
against  this  practice  that  our  Lord  directs  His 
precept  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "  But  I  say 
unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all ;  neither  by  heaven ; 
for  it  is  God's  throne  :  nor  by  the  earth  ;  for  it  is 
His  footstool :  neither  by  Jerusalem ;  for  it  is  the 
city  of  the  great  King.  Neither  shalt  thou  swear 
by  thy  head,  because  thou  canst  not  make  one 
hair  white  or  black  ;"  a  precept  which  is  echoed, 
almost  in  the  terms  in  which  it  was  issued,  by  the 
Apostle  James :  "  But  above  all  things,  my  breth- 
ren, swear  not,  neither  by  heaven,  neither  by  the 
earth,  neither  by  any  other  oath ;  but  let  your 
yea  be  yea,  and  your  nay  nay,  lest  ye  fall  into 
condemnation." 

It  is  singular  what  a  hold  conversational  oaths 


defined  from  the  Decalogue*  95 

have  taken  of  the  minds  of  men  In  all  ages  and 

countries  alike ;   what  ■  <li  haa  ah 

i   BUOWU  with   the  simple   atlirmat ion    and   de- 
nial, 8fl  not  inffici  iphatic;   and  how,  when 
l6T  the    Knflnenoe  Of  Christian    civilization)  a 

direct  appeal  to  '  God  has  been  entirely 

banished  from  good  society,  foolish  and  frivolous 

Lamations,  in  which  tlic  name,  is  disguised,  or 

banged  for  that  of  some  heathen  Deity,  have 

The  account  of  this  is,  that   the 
mind  is  raffled  by  some  momentary  excitement, 

whether   of  anger  or  BnrpriflO;   that  all  emotions 
naturally   seek    a   Tent  ;    and   that    a  momeir 
relict'  is  found   in   expressions  of  this  kind. 

lost  other  practices,  with  g] 
facility  grows  into  a  trick  ;  and  then  is  indulj 
in  as  a  mere  flourish,  even  when  the  mind   is  per- 

ly  calm.     It  may  be  thought,  perhaps,  that  it 

is  not  easy  to  see  the  guilt  of  such  a  habit ;  and 

that  when  once  formed,  it  is  so  instinctive  as  to 

some  involuntary.      But   let  it   be  considered 

that  in  the  presence  of  an  earthly  sovereign  such 

ressions  would  be  accounted  most  indecorous, 
and  universally  refrained  from  without  an  et! 
— the  history  of  which  propriety  of  BOUT 

would  be,  that  men  naturally  lay  a  restraint  upon 

mselves,  when  they  are  under  the  eye  of  one 
whom  they  |    instinctively  take  care 


96  An  Idle  Word 

that  nothing  shall  escape  them,  which  can  be  con- 
strued into  disrespect  of  a  great  presence.  This 
remark  opens  a  glimpse  into  the  true  spiritual 
significance  of  the  precept  before  us ;  for  a  con- 
sciousness of  God's  Presence  steadily  maintained 
would  impose  a  similar  restraint,  as  we  shall  have 
occasion  presently  to  notice  more  at  large. 

2.  I  pass  from  the  unduly  emphasized  assever- 
ation or  denial  to  other  profanenesses  of  ex- 
pression, into  which  Christians  might  be  liable  to 
fall. 

It  is  a  bad  habit,  and  one  which  we  should  seek 
as  much  as  possible  to  banish  from  our  discourse, 
to  quote  texts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  by  way  of 
pointing  a  jest.  The  effect  of  this  practice  is,  that 
when  we  next  come  across  the  text  in  Private  De- 
votion, or  it  may  be  in  the  Public  Service  of  the 
Church,  the  ludicrous  association  clings  to  it :  Ave 
seek  to  brush  it  off,  as  a  person  walking  through  a 
corn-field  seeks  to  brush  off  a  burr  which  clings  to 
his  dressfcbut  we  fail;  and  find  it  perhaps  impos- 
sible to  re-invest  that  passage  with  the  sanctity 
which  once  it  had  for  us.  In  the  Psalms  we  find 
it  written,  "Thou  hast  magnfied  Thy  Word  above 
all  Thy  Name ;"  as  if  out  of  the  whole  circle  of 
His  attributes  and  properties  there  was  none  which 
God  so  especially  delights  to  honour  as  His  Word. 
And  certainly,  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  repre- 


lof  Our  Lot 
raphers   the  Si   no  one  thing 

which  He  so  continually  honoured  in  His] 

riptara  ment    Thepro- 

phctieal  outline  which  those  Scripture-  h:i<l  fen 
out  for  Him  as  Messiah  seems  to  have  been  one 
the  uppermost  thoughts  in  Bis  mind;  and  as  Se 

was  tul tilling  His  great  destiny,  He  was  continu- 
ally reyerting  to  thi-  outline  with  such  expressions 
as,  "  The  Scriptures  must  he  fulfilled."  Now  if 
God  holds  His  Word  in  such  especial  honour,  and 
it*  the  incarnate  Son,  the  linage  in  human  flesh  of 
the  Invisible  (iod, and  OOT  pcrte  ■;  K\ ample,  shows 
Mich  a  deference  to  Scripture's  slightest  intima- 
tion  ly  cannot  be  in  conformity  with  the 

mind  of  God  and  Christ  that  we  should  desecrate 
wh;  ially  yenerable  by  light  and  jocular 

applications  of  it  And  possibly  this  practice  of 
quoting  Scripture  in  a  connexion  which  d 
it  may  haw  gradually  wrought  more  eyil  upon  our 
own  minds  than  we  are  fully  aware.  One  pal 
error  of  the  day  is  a  light  esteem  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture ;  a  contemptuous  repudiation  of  certain  parts 
of  it,  as  altogether  unworthy  of  credit  from  their 

»  conflict  with  scientific  discov* 
the  moral  sense  of  man;  and  generally  a  bringing 
down  of  the  Sacred  Books  to  the  leyel  of  com 
writings,  upon  whir  :n   is  to  sit  in  judg- 

5 


98  An  Idle  Word 

merit,  eliminating  whatever  does  not  satisfy  her, 
and  reconstructing  the  lively  Oracle  in  a  manner 
suitable  to  the  progress  and  enlightenment  of  the 
age  !  How  much  of  this  awful  presumption,  which 
is  now  making  such  encroachments  upon  Sacred 
Literature,  may  be  due  to  small  habits  of  irrever- 
ence, gaining  ground  stealthily  and  insidiously  on 
the  mind,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  this  we  may 
confidently  assert,  that  for  all  light  esteem  of 
Holy  Scripture,  as  of  every  thing  else  connected 
with  the  Name  of  God,  a  judgment  will  in  due  time 
overtake  us ;  and  therefore  we  cannot  be  too  cau- 
tious or  scrupulous  as  to  our  own  practice  in  this 
particular.  'No  doubt  the  gaiety  and  mirthfulness 
of  discourse  is  in  itself  a  good  thing,  because  in  this 
way  it  is  that  Conversation  is  made  to  fulfil  one  of 
its  ends,  which  is  the  relief  of  the  mind  under  the 
many  burdens  of  life ;  but  too  dear  a  price  is  paid 
for  this  gaiety,  if  it  is  produced  by  any  saying,  how- 
ever sparkling,  which  compromises  or  lowers  our 
reverence  for  God's  Word.  To  refrain  from  such 
a  saying  will  no  doubt  often  be  a  trial  to  those  in 
whose  characters  there  is  a  humorous  and  imagina- 
tive element ;  but  let  them  say,  after  honestly  try- 
ing it,  whether  such  self-restraint,  out  of  reverence 
to  the  Awful  Name  of  God,  does  not  bring  with  it 
its  own  reward, — whether  it  is  not  at  all  events 
compensated  by  the  great  facility  and  readiness 


(l,juu<! /rum  t/<<  Dtoalogui . 

with  which  the  mind  ifl  brought  into 
frame,  and  fenced  from  di 
8.  But  | 

h  things 
and  when'  in  a  rapid 
would  be  oy<  I  >ur  I 

controversial  times,  when  a  great  public  interest 

!t  in  Bubj  religion.     We  do  not  be':' 

tliat  the  depth  of  thi  at  all  proportion- 

ate t«»  its  universality.      What  men  hare  much 
on  their  ifl  Beldom  a  very  iinn  root  in 

:•  minds: — and  it  is  just  this  cunil )ination  of 
ihh  Ik  with  shallowness  of  feeling  (aochar- 

ic  of  our  dav)  which  constitutes  our  dan 
Theologj  Dflaionfl  are  so  common  iiuw-a-days, 

that  the  words  which  denote  the  hi- 
of  Religion  have  become  mere  counters,  passed 
about  from  hand  to  hand  with  a  fatal  facility.  As 
coins  which  are  in  continual  currency  lose  the  Sov- 
image  originally  impressed  upon  them,  so 
that  we  can  no  longer  tell  to  what  reign  the\ 
long ;  so  these  religious  words,  being  bandied  about 
continually,  lose  all  the  f.  of  their  original 

sign  .  and  convey  hardly  more  of  idea 

the  minds  of  the  persons  using  them  than  an  al 
braical  formula.    Hen  will  talk  about  the  Ed 
ration  of  Scripture,  Baptismal  Regeneration,  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  the  Powers  of  the  Chris- 


100  An  Idle  Ward 

tian  Ministry,  the  Miracles  of  Our  Lord,  His  Divine 
Sonsliip,  the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  with- 
out ever  pausing  for  a  moment  to  consider  the 
deep  reality  of  the  things  on  which  their  conversa- 
tion is  turning, — without  the  thought  crossing  them 
that  their  tongue  is  making  its  sallies  in  the  region 
of  the  supernatural.  Who  ever  came  away  from 
an  ordinary  controversial  discussion,  feeling  that 
he  was  the  better  for  it,  or  with  an  impression  of 
the  solemnity  of  Divine  things  abiding  on  his 
spirit  ?  Who  ever  came  away  without  feeling  that 
the  dignity  of  the  subject  had  been  somewhat  im- 
paired by  the  rude  friction  against  his  neigh- 
bour's views  which  his  own  views  had  sustained  ? 
And  what  is  the  reason  of  this  result  ?  The  reason 
is  that,  in  the  warmth  of  the  discussion,  both  parties 
have  forgotten  the  reality  of  the  things  which  were 
upon  their  lips ;  both  have  in  a  measure  (though 
quite  unconsciously,  and  probably  with  no  worse 
motive  than  that  of  mutual  improvement)  "  taken 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  their  God  in  vain."  To 
talk  suitably  and  profitably  about  Divine  things  is 
no  such  easy  matter  as  might  be  supposed.  It  de- 
mands a  certain  state  of  heart  which  is  not  by 
ordinary  Christians  realized,  except  in  happy  mo- 
ments. It  demands  recognition  of  God's  Presence, 
of  the  mysteriousness  of  His  Nature,  and  of  all 
truths  concerning   Him,  and   of  the  limitations 


dqfintdfrom  th*  Dtoa&ogue*  L01 

imposed  up  uman  understanding 

mind  m  ipping  rather  than  a   ; 

nl*1  Truth  is  most  i 

with  tli  tending,  bul 

with  the  heart  ;  and  he  who  allows  him- 

a:i  intellectual  game  of  the  pursail 
it  coold  be  woo  by  mere  dialectical  fencing, 
the  wrong  end,  and  misses  b 
gather  of  it-  i  Sect. 

of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  a: 
told  of  Boyle,  that  he  n 
■:i\vrsati«>n  without  a  visible  j •:. 

or  stop,  and  that,  if  he  were  covered  at  tl 
he  commonly  also  raised  bifl  hat  from  his  1 

:  how  mucli  it  is  to  be  desired  in  these  d 
of  Religious  Conferences  and  Church  Congresses, 
when  fluent  mention  of  God  and  Divine  thing 
certain  circles  is  so  much  in  vogue,  that  men  would 
cultivate  the  same  spirit  which  expressed  itself  by 

•  outward  visible  signs?  How  much  it  ; 
be  desired,  even  if  the  only  point  to  be  secured  were 
the  edification  of  man  !  For  a  controversial  dis- 
cussion, conducted  with  a  seriousness  suitable  to 
the  subjects  on  which  it  turns,  could  not  h 
rimonious  discussion.  A  heart  solemnized  by  the 
thought  of  God's  Presence  is  in  a  calm  state, — is  in 
communion  with  the  Fountain  of  Truth  and  Love, 
and  cannot  easily  fulminate  an  anathema,  or  e 


102  An  Idle  Word 

provoke  a  difference  of  opinion.  But  how  much 
more  desirable  does  such  a  state  of  mind  appear, 
when  we  remember  that  not  only  the  danger  of 
dissension  with  man  has  to  be  guarded  against,  but 
that  also  of  offence  to  the  Majesty  of  Heaven  !  Sins 
against  Society  are  light  as  compared  with  those 
against  God,  and  are  to  a  certain  extent  remedia- 
ble by  Society  itself,  according  to  that  profound 
word  of  the  old  priest :  "  If  one  man  sin  against 
another,  the  judge  shall  judge  him  :  but  if  a  man 
sin  against  the  Lord,  who  shall  entreat  for  him  % " 
4.  We  have  spoken  of  Reverence  in  handling 
Divine  Truth;  but  there  is  another  sentiment, 
distinct  from,  and  yet  intimately  blended  with 
Reverence,  with  which  it  should  be  handled, — I 
mean  that  sentiment  of  fervour,  of  love,  and  de- 
light, to  which  the  name  of  unction  is  usually 
given.  Surely  it  is  doing  a  great  wrong  to  the 
greatest  of  all  themes,  if  we  speak  of  God  in  a 
dry,  cold,  hard  manner,  without  any  feeling  of  the 
surpassing  beauty,  amiability,  and  attractiveness 
of  His  Character.  A  Being  whose  heart  is  a 
Fountain  of  pity  and  of  sympathy  with  H*is 
meanest  creatures,  and  whose  tenderness  for  His 
rational  creatures  is  so  unspeakably  great,  that, 
sooner  than  they  should  perish,  He  consented  to 
the  Sacrifice  of  His  Son ;  a  Being  who,  in  His  in- 
exhaustible bounty,  yearns  and  longs  to  communi- 


.  '•/•',■,    ]  fi  ■     t!,.   I  >     ■'  [/■■■ .  103 

far  nd  i  irni 

ifter  union,  with   man  in  particular,  that  to  effect 

this  union,  Ee  »  OUT   Nature 

D    Him,  an«l  Irit  to  make  us  partal 

Nature, — a  Father  of  lights,  from 
whom  ]  v  scintillatio::  loiD  and 

truth  which  has  I  D  struek  out,  and  a  God 

Love    IH    whom    every    pure    ami    t>  | 

ntres, — such  a  One    should    not  be 
lUUII  in    a    loving    and    fervent    spirit, 

with   the   feeling   that,    if  we  had   the   tongues 
of   :  ■    exalt     Ilini    with,    wo   could    m 

tell  forth   His  praise.    Such  an  in- 
finitely good,  wise,  and  tender  Father  one  would 
wiflh    never   to   think   of  without    a   drawing  of 
heart    towards    Him,    and    therefore    never 

ipeak  of  except  in  terms  which  might  commend 
Him  to  the  listeners.     It  is  a  high  attainment  to 

ik  of  God  thus  in  familiar  discourse,  but  not 

ond  the  reach  of  any  man  who  will  set  about 
it  in  the  right  way.  It  is  not  to  be  done  by  un- 
natural .-training  alter  a  pious  sentiment,  and  in- 
jecting it  into  the  ear  of  a  casual  listener.  The 
speech  which  ministers  grace  to  the  hearers  is  never 
forced,  but  flows  naturally  from  the  exuberance 
of  a  heart  full  charged  with  its  subject ;  it 
from*  a  fountain,  not  water  forced  up  by  niacin: 

Id  much  and  fervent  communion  with  God; 


104  An  Idle  Word 

and  let  this  communion  consist  not  so  much  in 
direct  prayer,  as  in  meditation  on  His  glorious  and 
lovely  attributes,  as  they  are  fully  revealed  to  us 
in  the  Gospel.  This  meditation,  if  persisted  in, 
will  gradually  beget  what  I  shall  call  a  gravitation 
of  the  mind  towards  God,  a  thrill  of  joy' when  any 
new  wonder  in  His  works  or  His  Word  is  revealed 
to  us,  and  of  delight  when  He  is  honoured  and 
glorified.  And  this  state  of  mind  will  transpire 
occasionally — with  some  oftener,  with  others  more 
rarely,  according  to  the  greater  or  less  unreserve 
of  the  character, — in  simple  but  fervent  words 
spoken  to  those  around  us,  which,  coming  from  the 
heart  of  the  speaker,  and  having  a  savour  of 
heavenly  affections,  which  commends  them,  are 
very  likely  to  go  to  the  heart  of  the  listener. 
Thus  shall  we  not  only  refrain  from  taking  the 
Name  of  the  Lord  our  God  in  vain,  but  shall  do 
something  towards  the  fulfilment  of  the  precept 
on  its  positive  side,  by  "  hallowing  the  Name  "  of 
our  Father  which  is  in  Heaven. 

5.  And  now,  in  conclusion,  we  must  exhibit 
this  positive  side  of  the  precept  a  little  more  fully. 
In  order  to  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  observe 
the  connexion  which  subsists  between  the  com- 
mandments of  the  first  Table.  We  know  that 
they  are  all  summed  up  in  the  one  precept  of 
"loving  the  Lord  our  God  with  all  our  heart,  and 


defined  from  the  Deoaloj  L05 

with  all  OUT  BOUl,  Mid  with  all  OUT  mind,  and  with 
all  <  /,     Now  this  devoted  love  of  God 

must   necessarily  involve    the  following  obliga- 

: — 

.  An  obligation  to  worship  Him  only, 
to  i  nsion  of  pleasure,  money,  distinct! 

or  any  other  objed  to  which  men  give  their  hearts. 
This  is  the  obligation   prescribed  hy  the  I 
Oommandment 

Secou'lhj.  An  obligation  to  worship  Him  in 

it    and  in   truth,   not    leaning   upon  material 
•lis,  or  impressions  derived  from  the 

-es.      This   is   the   obligation  prescribed  by  the 
Second  Commandment. 

.  An  obligation  to  worship  Ilim,  in  a 

tain    sense,  unceasingly,  by  continually  realiz- 
ing His  i  •.  and  gravitating  towards  Him  in 
our  inmost  souls.      This  is  the  obligation  pre- 
•  v  the  Third  Oommandment, 

And  fourthly.  An  obligation  to  devote  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  our  time  to  direct  acts  of  worship. 
This  last  precept  is  the  antidote  and  corrective  of 
an  error,  which  possibly  might  be  insinuated  by 
the  Third,  For  it  might  be  asked:  "If  the 
mind  is  never  allowed  to  lose  the  consciousness  of 
God's  Presence,  is  not  this  sufficient  hum 
without  any  distinct  acts  of  worship?"  The 
Fourth  Commandment   answers  this  question   in 


106  An  Idle  Word 

the  negative,  affirming  the  principle  that  God  has 
a  claim  upon  our  time,  and  that  this  claim  must 
be  acknowledged  by  surrendering  a  certain  por- 
tion of  it  to  Worship,  Public  and  Private. — But 
to  return  to  the  Third  Commandment. 

I  am  not  denying  that  forcible  restraints  upon 
the  tongue  are  good,  or  that  they  are  necessary  as 
steps  by  which  we  may  mount  up  to  the  spiritual 
fulfilment  of  this  precept.  But  I  do  say  that  the 
precept,  understood  in  its  length  and  breadth,  in- 
volves something  far  beyond  these  restraints.  It 
cannot  be  thoroughly  fulfilled  without  an  habitual 
consciousness  of  God's  Presence,  and  intimate 
nearness  to  each  one  of  us.  "  Thy  Name  also  is 
so  nigh."  "  I  am  always  by  Thee."  Let  this 
consciousness  preside  in  the  soul ;  and  an  irrever- 
ent word  becomes  at  once  an  impossibility.  We 
have  already  seen  that  it  is  only  when  a  man  is 
off  his  guard,  and  does  not  care  for  his  company, 
that  such  words  escape  him.  If  he  were  in  a  royal 
presence,  nay,  even  if  he  were  in  the  presence  of 
a  child  or  a  woman,  or,  in  short,  of  any  one  to 
whom  respect  is  felt  to  be  due,  he  would,  almost 
without  an  effort,  refrain  from  profane  language. 
Then  if  he  can  bring  himself  to  the  remembrance 
that  God's  Eye  is  always  upon  him,  that  this  Su- 
preme Object  of  reverence  and  love  hears  every 
word  he  says,  and  registers  every  idle'  word,  this 


/A   •,/',.  li>7 

tliontrlit  will  njn  .I-.'  rule  could  do,  to 

secure  the  fulfilment  of  the  preoept  Seek,  then, 
this  consciousness  of  God's  Presence.  Bay  often 
in  thine  heart.  M  Thou  God   86681  me;  n  M  II;; 

•  here  looked  after  Him  that  seeth  nic!" 

practice  of  pouring  momentarily  In  bonneae  or 

ation,  to  realize  God's  T  :  the 

rudiment  ion*  in  the  Primer  of  Religion, 

Which   fa  CUB    tO  walk    by   faith   and   not  by 

:.  Be  thoroughly  rooted  and  grounded  in  this 
lesson.  Make  it  the  maxim  of  your  spiritual  life. 
And  you  shall  soon  learn  to  live  more  nearly  as 
you  pray,  when  you  pray,  as  you  do  daily,  that, 
the  "Name  of  our  Father  who  is  in  Heaven  may 
Mowed." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WHAT  IS   AN   IDLE   WOKD  ? 

44  3Ebcrr>  i&le  toorti  tfjat  men  st)all  spcaft,  tijes  s|)all  sibe  account 
thereof  fa  tlje  trai>  of  Ju&flment."— Matt.  xii.  36. 

The  sin  of  idle  words  is  censured  by  Our  Lord 
in  the  most  awful  terms.  It  behoves  us,  there- 
fore, to  ascertain  exactly  what  is  meant  by  idle 
words, — lest  we  should  add  any  thing  to,  or  di- 
minish any  thing  from,  His  holy  commandment. 

Nor  let  any  one  imagine  that  such  minute  in- 
vestigations of  the  language  of  Holy  Scripture  as 
we  now  propose,  are  wanting  in  interest.  Holy 
Scripture  is  the  expression  of  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit.  He,  therefore,  who  sifts  a  Greek  or  He- 
brew phrase  occurring  in  the  Old  or  'New  Testa- 
ment, with  the  view  of  ascertaining  its  fine  shades 
of  significance,  is  investigating  the  sublimest  of  all 
subjects — he  is  exploring,  as  far  as  man  may  ex- 
plore, the  thoughts  of  Almighty  God. 


109 
w  Every  Idle  word." 

Our  first  mle,  in  seeking  to  understand  a  pas- 
sage of  Scripture,  must  always  be  to  ii  in 
connexion    with    its   context.     "What    the: 

<«t'  these  words  of  our  Lord  I 

I  which  the  words  in  <pu 
form  a  part,  had  in  the  circumstance  of  the 

Pharisees  attributing  Our  Lord's  miraeL 

16  of  theni  whose  character  presented  most 
difficulty  to  such  an  explanation)  to  Satanic  agen- 
cy.    He  had  cast  out  of  a  man  a  blind  and  dumb 

I,  B0  that  the  blind  and  dumb  both  spake  and 
saw.    The  people  were  struck  with  amazement 
and  conyiction.     They  said,  "Is  not  this  the 
of  David 

But  the   PI  resisted  this  natural    and 

obvious  conclusion,  by  suggesting  another  account 
of  the  phenomenon.  They  said,  "This  fellow 
doth  not  cast  out  devils,  but  by  Beelzebub,  the 
prince  of  the  de\ 

Thereupon  follows  the  discourse,  which  makes 
mention   of  a  certain   unpardonable  sin,   called 

-phenvy  aLraiii>t  the  Holy  Ghost  (tjtov  Ilvev- 
[larog  PZxicKprrinia),  and  embraces  also  the  warn- 
ing against   idle  words   that  is  contained   in  our 

Now  at  first  sight,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
by  idle  words  are  meant  such  as  the  Pharisees 


110  What  is  an  Idle  Word  f 

had  just  vented — words  of  blasphemy  against  the 
Holy  Ghost.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive 
what  kind  of  words  those  were.  The  Pharisees, 
like  the  multitude,  were  internally  convinced  of 
the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  by  the  miracle  which 
they  had  witnessed.  But  it  would  have  been  in- 
convenient to  them  to  have  acknowledged  His 
claims.  By  doing  so,  they  would  have  to  retract 
their  whole  previous  career — to  place  themselves 
(after  the  fashion  of  Mary)  at  His  feet,  as  His  dis- 
ciples. This  would  have  humbled  the  pride  of 
those  ecclesiastical  rulers,  and  such  an  humiliation 
they  could  not  brook.  So,  without  honestly  be- 
lieving their  own  explanation,  they  attributed  the 
cure  of  the  blind  and  dumb  man  to  the  agency 
of  Satan.  It  was  a  sujyernatural  cure — that  they 
admitted — but  there  are,  said  they,  supernatural 
evil  agencies  as  well  as  supernatural  good  ones, — 
and  this  particular  miracle  is  due  to  the  first  of 
these  causes.  It  might  have  occurred  to  them 
(probably  it  did  occur  to  them  in  the  deep  of 
their  hearts),  that  this  was  a  flimsy  and  trans- 
parently false  explanation— that,  on  no  recognized 
principle  of  craft  or  policy,  could  the  Devil  cast 
out  his  own  agents. 

Yes,  such  an  account  would  not  serve  the  turn  ; 
— it  was  a  dishonest  shuffle,  and  they  knew  it  to 
be  so,  to  avoid  making  a  confession  which  was  irre- 


/  "  111 

:!>ly  forced  upon  their  minds,  bill  which  would 
b  Involved  them  in  oonsequenccs  from  which 
their  pride  and  jealousy  shrunk. 

And  thin  came  in  the  corrupt  special  pleading, 
BO  natural  to  the  human  mind  under  ffOoh  circum- 
stances,— 'II  y/M)na    ntt<,'>u<>\\   ij    ft  0p*)v    arw/ioroc. 

"After,  all,  though  I   am  giving  an  explanation 

which  I  do  not  believe— with  which  I  am  not  sat- 
fafied  myself — which  finds  no  response  what' 
in  my  convictions, — yet  these  are  hut   words,  the 

,th  of  the  lips,  lightly  uttered  and  soon  forgot* 
-my  mind  recognizes  the  truth,  though  I  can- 
not bring  my  tongue  to  confes- 

The  eye  of  II im,  who  knew  what  W9B  in  man, 
i  this  reasoning  at  the  bottom  of  their 
and  down  came  the  lighting  of  His  censure 
to  brush  and  blast  a  fallacy  so  dangerous.  "  Who- 
soever speaketh  a  word  against  the  Son  of  Man" 
(without  violating  internal  convictions, — like 
Paul  before  his  conversijn,  who  spake  many  things 

inst  the  Son  of  Man,  but  spake  them  ignorant- 
ly  in  unbelief),  "it  shall  be  forgiven  him — but 
whosoever  speaketh  against  the  Holy  Ghost" 
(violate-  those  internal  convictions  of  Truth,  which 
are  wrought  in  the  mind  by  the  Holy  Spirit),  M  it 
shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world, 
neither  in  the  world  to  come."  As  if  the  Lord  had 
said:  "Your  Language  is  not,  as  you  vainly  im- 


112  What  is  an  Idle  Word? 

agine,  a  separate  and  separable  thing  from  your  Rea- 
son :  it  has  a  deep  and  living  connexion  with  your 
state  of  mind.  Language  and  Reason  have  their 
fibres  twined  up  together, — so  that  a  corrupt  Lan- 
guage argues  a  corrupt  Reason." 

And  then  follows  our  passage,  introduced  by 
the  formula  But  I  say  unto  you  : — "  Every  idle 
word  that  men  shall  speak,  they  shall  give  ac- 
count thereof  in  the  day  of  judgment." 

JSow  is  the  idle  word  to  be  explained  simply 
and  solely  by  the  Uasphe?ny  preceding?  If  so, 
the  warning, — though  still  an  awful  one, — will 
scarcely  possess  a  general  applicability;  for  the 
number  of  those  is  few,  whose  circumstances  re- 
semble the  circumstances  of  the  Pharisees.  The 
nearest  approach  to  the  same  sin  now-a-days, 
would  be  the  case  of  an  Indian  Brahmin,  men- 
tally convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  but 
inventing  arguments  to  explain  it  away  from  the 
fear  of  losing  caste.  Similar  cases  would  rare- 
ly occur  in  countries  professing  Christianity, — 
though  even  here  men  might  sin,  after  a  measure, 
on  much  the  same  principle. 

But  we  think  there  are  reasons  for  giving  to 
these  solemn  words  a  far  more  extended  applica- 
bility. 

First,  they  are  introduced  by  a  formula,  which 
will  be  found,  I  think,  to  indicate  a  transition 


What  it  rdf  II. 

applica- 
tion, the  word  translated  "  bu1  "  baying  the  G 

■  >\r,—fi  ,-.     Tim 

mi  the  Mount  many  times: 

••  N,  ;  Baid  by 

them  of  old  time,  Thou  .-halt  not  forswear  tin 
but  shall  perform  unto  the  Lord  thine  paths.    I 
I  say  unto  ■>  (5t  Aeycj  v/«*>),  Bwear  not 

all."     In  other  i  make  the  precept  of  the 

Law  mor  Lvely  applicable 

Again  :  M  Ye  bave  heard  that  it  has  been 

by  them  of  old  time.  Thou  shah  not  commit  adul- 

10  you"  (tyo)  61  /  i ■■) — 

the  Law  truly  interpreted   imposes  a  far  wider 

raint  than  this, — "  Whosoever  looketh  on  a 

ian  to  Inst  after  her  hath  committed  adultery 

with  her  already  in  his  heart." 

Again ;  in  commendation  of  the  centurion  of 

Capernaum,  it  is  said  :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  I 

have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no  not  in  Israel  : 

i  I  say  unto  you  (Aryw  de  vfuv),  that  ni 

1  come  from  the  east  and  west,  and  shall  sit 

down  witli   Abraham,  and   Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in 

the  king  heaven."     Observe.  -hall 

.c — I  limit  not  my  speech  to  tin's  centurion — 

I  assert  it  as  an  universally  applicable  truth,  that 

many,  whom  ye  look   down   upon  as   dogs  and 

sinners  of  the  Gentiles,  shall  be  admitted  to  a 


114  What  is  an  Idle  Word? 

glorious  and  intimate  communion  with  the  first 
founders  of  your  race. 

And  again  :  "  Have  ye  not  read  in  the  Law, 
how  that  on  the  sabbath  days  the  priests  in  the 
Temple  profane  the  Sabbath,  and  are  blameless  % " 
(their  profanation  of  the  Sabbath  is  excused  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  committed  in  the  course  of  their 
attendance  on  the  Temple.  My  disciples,  there- 
fore, supposing  they  were  attending  on  the  Tem- 
ple, might  be  excused  for  some  profanations  of  the 
Sabbath.)  "But I  say  unto  you"  (Aeyw  6e  vfuv), 
"  that  in  this  place  is  One  greater  than  the  Tem- 
ple." (My  disciples  are  plucking  the  ears  of  corn, 
in  course  of  their  attendance  upon  me  :  how  much 
more  does  that  excuse  the  act.) 

Thus  we  perceive  that  the  phrase  in  question 
introduces  a  transition  to  a  stronger,  more  em- 
phatic, or  more  general  assertion. 

But  the  same  conclusion  will  follow  from  ex- 
amining the  word  rendered  u  idle"  (dpX6g). 

According  to  its  derivation,  this  word  means 
not  working — (d-tpyov). 

If  we  refer  to  other  places  in  which  it  occurs, 
we  shall  find  that  it  is  used  of  the  labourers, 
whom  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  saw  standing  idle 
(dpyol)  in  the  market-place.  Here  it  must  mean 
simply  unoccupied,  disengaged.  Again,  St.  Paul 
employs  it  to  denote  that  hanging  about  upon 


-117  TdU  Word?  LIB 

which  is  so  opposed  to  Ohrisl  nestness 

in  work,  and  which  £068  together  with  gossip  and 
euri-  A.dl 

the  Becond  marriage  of  widows  he  says  that 
it'  unmarried,  "they  learn   t«>  '  (aWa')> 

adoring  about  from  house  to  house;  and  not 

\  idle, but  tattler-  also  and  busyhndies,  speak' 

things  which  they  ought  not."    (I  quote  conte 

rive  at  a  well-dclined,  nicclv- 

elled  apprehension  of  the  Scriptural  meai 
of  the  word.)    Then  again  a  no  Epimeni- 

des  i  I  in  the  Epistle  to  Titus,  in  which  the 

Ore:  said  to  be  "slow  bellies  "(] 

:f).     The  substantive  would  probably  indicate 
their  gluttony  ;   the  adjective  their  want  of  e\ 

.  their  indolence.     Finally,  St.  Peter, 
in  hi  the  word  with  aitap- 

ttoc,  unfruitful.  Christians,  who  exhibit  Christian 
graces  in  abundance,  are  said  to  be,  ovk  dpyol  ovdk 
diiap-oi,  k*  neither  barren- nor  unfruitful."  'Apybc 
then  is  a  term  which  might  be  applied  to  unpro- 
ductive ground — to  that  soil  which,  though  drink- 

■•  in  the  rain  that  eoineth  oft  upon  it,bringeth 

forth  herbs  meet  for  them  by  whom   it  is 

dressed."     Hence,-.:  ren  fig-tree  it  is  said 

— ivari  Kal  rtjvyjjv  Karapyel ;  "  Why  a&0CUniber«'th 
it  the  ground?"  Why,  besides  being  unfruitful 
itself,  doth  it  drain  away  the  of  the  soil, 


116  What  is  an  Idle  Word  f 

which  might  go  to  feed  a  fruit-bearing  tree,  and 
so  render  the  ground  inoperative,  unproductive, 
unfruitful  ? 

Now,  the  words  of  the  Pharisees  were  not 
simply  useless,  unfruitful,  unprofitable  words  ;— 
but  far  worse.  They  were  false  words — they 
counteracted  conviction — their  fault  was  not  that 
of  omission — they  were  positively  bad,  mischiev- 
ous, and  wicked  words.  They  were  a  lie  in  the 
teeth  of  conviction,  and  they  were  calculated  to 
do  harm,  to  mislead  the  ignorant  people  who 
looked  up  to  their  authority.  Hence  we  infer 
that  when  Our  Lord  condemns  idle  words,  He  is 
going  a  step  beyond  that  sin  of  blasphemy  upon 
which  His  censure  had  at  the  outset  of  the  dis- 
course so  heavily  fallen — and  that  our  text,  ren- 
dered so  as  to  exhibit  the  emphatic  transition, 
would  run  thus — "  Nay,  I  even  say  unto  you,  that 
every  idle  word "  (not  merely  every  false  and 
blasphemous,  but  "  every  idle  word)  that  men 
shall  speak,  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 
day  of  judgment." 

Nor  is  there  any  thing  which  need  surprise  us, 
in  this  strictness  of  the  Christian  Law  on  the  sub- 
ject of  words.  It  is  strictly  in  accordance  with 
the  general  tenour  of  Evangelical  Precept.  "We 
are  often  instructed  that  that  precept  cannot  be 
satisfied  by  innocuousness — that  we  are  required 


117 

do!  merely  I  d  from  barm,  bill  to  do  posi- 

good.  of  the  Tal- 

I   and   the    I >ouim :  who  hid 

talent  in  a  napkin,  who  did  not  give  it    to  the 
chat  bo  did   not   put    it  out    to  int. 

call  at     1  »ut  his  wickedness  was 

no  wickedness  after  the  i  timate.    It  con- 

1  simply  in   slothfulness: — had  harmlessness 

i  the  criterion  of  worth,  the  servant  being  per- 

bly  harmless,  would  have  passed  without  c 
But  God    gives    u>    talent-  for  an   end. 
abilities,  n  ,  influence,  opportnnitiefl 

.  which  lie  bestows,  arc  desig 

to  j  .     And  if  they  do  not  further 

that  re  idle,  fruitless,  unprofitable, 

— if  they  fulfil  not  their  function,  and  bring  no 
nue  to  the  good  of  man,  and  the  glory  of 
God, — condemnation    ensues    as    surely   and   as 
sternly  a  had  been  misemployed.     Indeed, 

:  which  was  designed  for  em- 
ployment— this  is  to  misemploy  it. 

May  God  eradicate  out  of  the  hearts  of  all  of 
us  that  worldly,  false,  and  mischievous  notion, — 
that  we  may  neglect  the  opportunities  afforded 
waste  our  time,  and  leave  our  talents  uncultivated, 
and  -counted  in  the  sight  of  God  to  have 

whole  a  pure  life.     T!  the 

very  well,  if  we  were  to  be  judged  at  the  Last 


118  What  is  cm  Idle  Word  f 

Day  by  the  World, — by  the  society  in  which  we 
have  moved.  The  world  does  account  harmless- 
ness  for  goodness.  If  a  man  has  done  no  harm, 
the  world  is  content  with  him,  the  requirements 
of  society  are  satisfied.  But  we  are  to  be  judged 
by  One,  who  has  not  the  smallest  regard  to  the 
verdict  of  society,  or  the  estimate  of  man.  We 
are  to  stand  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ, — and  there  to  render  to  Him  an  account 
how  we  have  observed  His  Law.  The  Word  that 
He  hath  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge  us  in  the 
last  day.  We  have  that  Word  in  our  hands — it 
is  sounded  in  our  ears  continually.  Does  He  in 
that  Word  ever  lead  us  to  expect — does  He  ever 
give  us  the  slightest  intimation — that  He  will  be 
satisfied  with  an  amiable  harmlessness  ?  Yerily,  I 
trow  not.  Every  thing  which  He  says  on  the 
subject  is  in  the  teeth  of  this  notion.  He  pro- 
claims the  principle  of  His  dealing  with  us  to  be 
this — That  wherever  He  has  bestowed  a  talent, 
He  expects  a  revenue  from  it — He  expects  that  we 
shall  put  it  out  to  interest,  and  bring  this  interest 
into  His  treasury. 

Apply  now  this  principle  to  words.  Is  not 
the  gift  of  words  a  talent  ?  Is  there  any  talent  so 
wonderful  as  words, — which  are  the  living  prod- 
uce of  the  Keason  ?  And  are  not  words  a  talent 
adapted  to  secure  the  highest  of  all  ends  ?     May 


119 

we  not  bless  God  therewith  :     M  ach 

Gospel,  and  communicate  wholesome  instxne- 

ith  i      May  wc  not    edify  bun. 
th  {       May   v.  irry  00 

k>m  tlierewith  i     !  not  therewith 

and   ivlax   the  mind  l>y  disc.'!;  it,  which  is 

•ly  allied   to    wisdom  {        '  not    lighten 

another  man's  burden  therewith,  and  lift  up  the 

1  that  droops  therewith,  and  present  to  the 
mind  pictures  of  truth  and  beauty  therewith,  and 
drop  h,  which  shall  be 

of  gi  nghta  and  of  lofty  Impulses?    And 

If  the  talent  of  words  may  be  made  thus  Largely 

line,  it  was  no  doubt  deri  rto 

The  blessing  of  God,  the  edification 

and  nent    of  are    its   final 

causes,  the  objects  which  it  v.  med  to  sub- 

.  then,  if,  when  I  stand  be- 
fore the  Judgment  Seat,  an  account  is  required  of 
me  how  I  hi  dent — if  I  am  asked 

whether  I  hcax  blessed  God,  have  instructed  or 
entertained  man,  have  spoken  a  word  in  due 
son  to  the  weary,  have  thrown  out  good  suc- 
tions, hare  advocated  holy  objects  therewith — and 
if  upon  every  word  which  has  not  conduced  to 
any  of  these  purposes  (then  brought  to  my  mem- 
ory with  an  instantaneousness  more  than  electric) 


120  What  is  an  Idle  Word  f 

should  be  pronounced  by  the  Son  of  Man  the 
censure  idle  ?  In  short,  is  there  any  thing  more 
than  the  intimation,  that  we  are  expected  dili- 
gently to  improve  all  our  talents,  in  the  solemn 
words  of  our  passage :  iC  Nay,  I  even  say  unto  you 
that  every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak,  they 
shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment "  ? 

In  the  next  Chapters  we  will  consider  more  in 
detail  the  final  causes  of  the  talent  of  words :  for 
unless  those  final  causes  are  well  defined  in  our 
minds,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  apprehend  the  subject 
in  detail,  however  much  possessed  of  a  clear  gene- 
ral notion  of  its  meaning. 

But,  before  closing  our  present  Chapter,  let  us 
reflect  that  we  have  ascertained  this  clear  general 
notion.  It  is  a  solemn  thing — this  ascertaining  of 
Our  Lord's  meaning  in  a  matter  bearing  so  im- 
mediately upon  our  daily  practice.  So  long  as  the 
meaning  is  a  little  cloudy,  and  wrapped  up  in 
doubt  and  difficulty,  we  might  think  perhaps  that 
if  we  do  not  fully  carry  out  the  precept,  it  is 
because  we  do  not  entirely  understand  it.  But  I 
am  afraid  that  the  meaning  is  too  clear  in  this  in- 
stance, for  the  precept  to  be  thus  evaded. 

What  the  passage  condemns  is  useless  words, 
words  conducive  neither  to  instruction  nor  to  in- 
nocent entertainment — words  having  no  salt  of  wit 


What  is  an  Idle  Ward?  121 

or  wisdom  in  them — flat,  stale,  dull,  and  unprofit- 

-thrown   out  to   while  away  the  time,  to  till 
up  a  spare  five  minutes, — words  that  aiv  not   o 
Herat 0(1    by  any  seriousness   Of  purpose  whatever. 

Now  that  w<  rly  what  is  forbid- 

den, wo  must  gird  oanelfti  earnestly  to  the  ob- 

be  restriction.  Remember  upon  Whose 

authority  the  rot rict ion  rests.      Remember  it  ||  the 

:  .Jesus  who  Speaks.     This  leaves  no  room  for 

evasion.     The    command    may  lie    hard,   may  be 

difficult  of  execution;  but  impossible  it  is  not,  01 

Be  would  not  have  commanded  it — and  difficult 
though  it  be,  lie  irives  grace  if  we  seek  it,  more 
than  commensurate  to  the  difficulty. 

WeD,  then,  I  see  plainly  that  a  new  duty  has 

i  brought  home  to  my  conscience,  aud  that  I 

must   begin  to-morrow  clearing  away  out  of  my 

talk  every  weed  and  useless  growth — every  thing 

vapid,  useless,  aimless,  idle. 

Said  I  every  weed  and  useless  growth  ? 
are  there  not  in  the  mouths  of  some  (despite  all 
the  refinement  of  modern  society)  words  positively 
evil  and  noxious?  Do  not  many  use  the  tongue 
in  swearing,  which  should  be  employed  in  blessing 
God  ?  Do  not  many  employ  that  faculty  which  was 
given  for  the  purpose  of  edification,  in  corrupt  ing 
others  by  mean-  of  words,  and  in  spreading  round 
them  a  moral  pestilence?  the  sentence  against 
6 


122  What  is  an  Idle  Word? 

idle  words  is  awful  enough.  But  for  him,  who 
taints  the  soul  of  another  by  communicating  to 
him  the  venom  of  a  foul  imagination,  for  him,  and 
such  as  him,  there  remains  a  censure,  which  seems 
to  exhaust  the  righteous  indignation  of  Him  Who 
is  Love: — "Woe  unto  that  man  by  whom  the 
offence  cometh :  rr  were  better  for  him  that  a 

MILLSTONE  WERE  HANGED  ABOUT  HIS  NECK,  AND  HE 
CAST  LNTO  THE  SEA,  THAN  THAT  HE  SHOULD  OFFEND 
ONE  OF  THESE  LITTLE  ONES." 


(  IIAPTER  VII. 

WORDS   OF  BUSINESS   AND  ENNOOENT  RECREATION 
NOT  IDLi:. 

"Bbrr*  iilc  toort)."— Matt,  xii. 

We  are  at  present  engaged  in  the  minute  ex- 
amination of  the  solemn  censure,  passed  by  Our 
Lord  upon  idle  words. 

I  suppose  my  readers  to  be  deeply  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  following  out  the  Lord's 
will,  when  it  is  ascertained.  I  suppose  them  will- 
ing and  desirous  to  observe  such  restraints  as  He 
lays  upon  them.  I  suppose  the  tone  of  their  mind 
in  regard  to  His  precepts  to  be  justly  expressed 
by  the  words  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  to  the  servants 
at  the  marriage  festival, — "  Whatsoever  He  saith 
unto  yon,  do  it."  Our  question  on  the  pre- 
occasion  is,  what  He  does  say  ? 

In  prosecuting  this  inquiry,  we  have  already 
seen  that  the  word  rendered  "  idle"  is  very  appro- 


124  Words  of  Business  cmd 

priately  so  rendered — that  it  is  susceptible  of  ap- 
plication to  any  person  or  thing  which  does  not 
perform  its  proper  business,  and  so  fulfil  the  prop- 
er end  of  its  existence. 

Words  then  are  idle,  which  do  not  fulfil  the 
proper  end  of  the  existence  of  words. 

We  may  remark,  in  general,  that  what  consti- 
tutes the  excellence  or  virtue  of  any  thing  is,  that 
it  should  fulfil  its  proper  end.  A  few  simple 
instances  will  suffice  to  make  this  clear.  The  end 
of  an  orchard — the  business  which  we  expect  it  to 
fulfil — is  to  bring  forth  fruit.  The  end  of  a 
flower-garden  is  to  gratify  the  senses  of  sight  and 
smell.  The  end  of  a  watch  is  to  keep  the  time 
truly.  The  end  of  memory  is  to  present  us  with 
a  faithful  picture  of  the  past.  The  end  of  an  elec- 
tric telegraph  is  to  convey  news  with  rapidity. 
If  the  orchard  brings  forth  a  meagre  crop, — if  the 
garden  presents  a  poor  and  ill-arranged  assort- 
ment of  colours, — if  the  watch  is  ever  losing  or 
gaining, — if  the  memory  is  ever  letting  points  of 
importance  drop, — if  the  telegraph  is  so  ill- worked, 
or  so  fractured,  that  the  instantaneous  conveyance 
of  intelligence  is  impeded, — we  call  it,  as  the  case 
may  be,  a  bad  orchard,  or  a  bad  garden,  or  a  bad 
watch,  or  a  bad  memory,  or  a  bad  telegraph, — 
implying  thereby  that  we  regard  that  thing  as 
good,  which  fulfils  its  proper  business  or  function. 


ITJITIVBRSITT 

Recreation  not  late* 

What  then  is  the  proper  function  of  words, — 

-id  for  which  they  were  «^ivimi, — by  fulfilling 
which  ti  ■  ore 

of  being  idle  words? 

The  first  and  perhape  paiison)the  low- 

ad  of  words,  IB  to  car/  busmen 

A  moment's  thought  will  show  as,  that  the  m< 
ordinary  and  most  essential   transactions  can 

kiried  on  without  words.     Lite  would  bo  at  a 
standstill  without    them.     Think  how  unpossi 

aid  be  to  carry  out  any  common  project   Of 
ho  took  it  in  hand  were  sud- 
denly struck  dumb.     Remember  how  impossible 
it  proved  to  oontinne  the  building  of  the  To. 
of  Bftbel,  when  bj  the  confusion  of  tongues  the 
builders  were  precluded  from  the  use  of  a  com- 
mon language.      And  without  some  amount  of 
•ination,  mutual  assistance,  and  co-operation, 
thing  could  be  effected.    Men  are  so 
ktely  one  body,  that  they  have  need  of  one 
another's  services  many  times  in  each  day.     The 
service  of  course  often  consists  of  6ome  common 
of  information,  which  one  man  i  ..!', 

another  not.     Still  it  is  a  service  ;  it  invol 
the  principle  of  mutual  assistance,  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  words  it  could  not  be  rendered.     You 
walk  through  the  iields,  and  a  peasant,  who  has 
no  clock  but  that  of  the  heavens  to  govern  his 


126  Words  of  Business  and 

arrangements  by,  asks  you  the  time.  You  walk 
through  the  city,  and  an  officer  of  justice,  in  pur- 
suit of  a  criminal,  asks  you  whether  you  have 
seen  a  person  of  such  a  description  as  you  came 
along  on  such  a  road.  You  want  a  book  of 
reference  for  immediate  use  ;  long  before  you  can 
procure  it  from  a  bookseller,  the  occasion  for  it 
will  have  passed  away :  but  you  may  have  it  by 
speaking  a  few  words ;  for  your  neighbour  pos- 
sesses it,  and  will  lend  it  to  you,  if  you  ask  him. 
ISTow  conceive  in  all  these  cases  what  a  serious 
impediment  to  the  business  of  life  it  would  be,  if 
the  person  in  want  of  assistance,  or  the  person 
questioned  for  information,  were  deprived  of  the 
use  of  Language,  or  were  sullenly  to  refuse  to 
speak.  Carry  out  this  hypothesis  to  its  ultimate 
results,  and  you  would  deal  a  death-blow  at  mu- 
tual supply  and  demand,  at  commerce  and  ex- 
change, at  all  the  arts  of  civilized  life, — nay,  you 
would  destroy  the  whole  system  of  the  republic 
(by  which  word  I  now  mean,  not  any  particular 
form  of  government,  but  the  system  of  society  and 
of  life  in  common),  and  would  reduce  man  to  the 
level  of  a  solitary  creature, — to  the  condition  of 
the  hermit,  who  plucks  berries  for  his  food,  dips 
his  potsherd  in  the  stream,  wattles  his  own  hut, 
and  patches  up  a  garment  of  leaves,  like  our  first 
parents  after  their  fall. 


127 

■  mm  and  BUl  of  wliat  lias  ' 

is  this :    Men  a'  ointment, a  com- 

munity— "one  body.3  mutual  dep 

of  the  members  of  a  community  upon  one  and 

ae  rapid  means  of  communication  be- 
moans of  communication  or- 
dained by  God  for  this  purpose  is  Language.  I . 
guage,  thriven',  may  be  not  only  innocently,  but 
idabfy,  used  in  carrying  on  the  business  of 
life.  Assuredly  it  is  no  idle  word,  it',  when  I  want 
information  to  guide  my  arrangements,  I  ask  for 

it,  or  if,  when  I  am  BoHcited  for SOCh  information, I 

Midi  words  are  to  the  point, — I  mean, 
if  they  are  not  made  the  for  indulging  in 

gossip,  and  throwing  away  precious  moments — I 

r  th>  //■  confronting  me  at  the  Day  of 
Judgment.  Probably,  reader,  you  think  that  tin's 
is  a  very  needless  admonition.  Nay,  but  I  am 
anxious  to  ascertain  very  definitely,  by  way  of 
guiding  our  consciences,  what  wor  omitted 

to  us  and  what  arc  forbidden.     How  are  we  to  ex- 

lves  on  the  idle  words  we  have  used, 
so  long  as  wc  have  but  a  vague  notion  of  what  is 
meant  by  an  idle  word  ? 

>nd  end  which  words  should  fulfil,  and 
for  which  they  were  no  doubt  designed,  is  to  re- 
and  entertain  the  m 
It  is  a  trite  saying,  but  no  less  true  than  it  is 


128  Words  of  Business  and 

trite,  that  tlie  mind  requires  refreshment.  One 
strain  of  serious  occupation  or  of  earnest  thought, 
cannot  be  maintained  for  any  length  of  time,  and 
an  attempt  made  to  maintain  it,  in  despite  of  the 
constitution  of  our  nature,  would  probably,  if  per- 
sisted in,  issue  in  the  wreck  of  our  mental  powers. 
The  mind,  like  the  body,  cannot  endure  a  long-con- 
tinued pressure ;  and  man,  therefore,  being  in  need 
of  recreation  (and  that,  in  virtue  of  his  original 
constitution,  without  reference  to  the  sin  he  has 
superinduced  upon  it),  we  should  expect  to  find 
him  furnished  with  some  resource, — a  resource, 
mark  you,  in  himself,  and  not  in  external  circum- 
stances, for  mental  refreshment.  Most  wisely, 
therefore,  and  most  beneficently  has  it  been  or- 
dained that  he  shall  carry  about  with  him  such  a 
resource  in  the  tongue, — the  instrument  of  recrea- 
tion as  well  as  of  business,  of  refreshment  as  well 
as  of  instruction. 

Similarly,  in  his  bodily  constitution  there  is  a 
provision  for  the  recreation  of  his  physical  frame. 
The  power  of  moving  the  limbs, — of  taking  exercise 
of  any  description, — no  doubt  conduces  to  the  more 
serious  ends  of  carrying  on  mutual  communication, 
and  so  of  forwarding  the  business  of  life.  But  this 
same  exercise,  taken  in  the  open  air,  under  fresh 
breezes  and  gleams  of  sunshine,  and  among  the 
ever-shifting  sceneries  of  nature,  is  also  a  physical 


eation.    Think  of  t lie  operative,  whose  nimble 
fingi  plying  ill  day  amid 

machinery,  and  giving  abundant  testimony  to  the 
wonderful  BkOfulnees  with  which  thehnman  hand 
:  for  the  purpose  of  the  useful 
arte:  le  same  limbs  at  work  on  a  fine  luttv 

'>  evening  amid  the  i  Bounds 

of  nature, — let  him  pluck  daisies  to  weave  a  fan- 
tastic garland,  ox  toss  himself  among  the  sweet 
hay,  or  simply  walk  through  the  fields  of  do 

and  watch  the  sun  descend  in  a  hla/.c  of  gold, — 
this  is  the  very  refreshment  which  his  frame  jaded 

by  the  protracted  labours  of  the  day,  demands,  and 

which  we  of  the  upper  classes,  whose  luxi; 
purchased  by  his  toils,  are  bound  to  see  that  he  has 
at  least  the  opportunity  of  enjoy! 

Now  analogous  to  exercise  for  recreation's  sake 
in  the  physical  frame  of  man,  is  the  use  of  the 

jue  for  the  entertainment  of  the  mind.  The 
method  of  mental  entertainment  readiest  to  hand, 
— that  which  nature  herself  furnishes  independent- 
ly of  all  extrinsic  resources, — is  by  the  tongue. 
"Iron  sharpeneth  iron:  so  a  man  sharpen eth  the 
countenance  of  his  friend," — a  very  expressive 
text,  and  one  which  speaks  for  itself.  When  the 
countenance  is  dulled  and  blunted  by  the  hard  and 
dry  business  of  life,  what  is  it  which  communicates 
to  it  the  spark  of  animation,  which  makes  it  dawn 
6* 


130  Words  of  Business  Mid 

once  again  with  intelligence,  which  brings  out  that 
characteristic  gleam,  which  probably  lies  hidden 
in  every  countenance,  which  it  is  the  artist's  skill 
to  catch  and  to  perpetuate  upon  canvas,  but  which 
no  solar  picture  (taken  as  such  likenesses  are  by 
machinery,  and  without  an  operation  of  the  artifi- 
cer's mind)  ever  did  or  ever  will  catch  ?  "  A  man 
sharpeneth  the  countenance  of  his  friend."  The 
simple  collision  of  mind  with  mind,  not  on  arduous 
subjects,  or  serious  business,  but  upon  ordinary 
and  lighter  topics, — the  simple  interchange  of 
thoughts  without  reserve,  and  the  freedom  and 
gaiety  of  common  intercourse, — acts  as  the  greatest 
relief,  to  one  whose  attention  and  thoughts  have 
been  kept  on  the  stretch  by  study  or  business. 
The  excellence  of  such  conversation — that  which 
renders  it  good  of  its  kind,  and  suitable  to  the  ful- 
filment of  its  end — is  Wit.  Do  not  be  surprised 
at  hearing  such  a  thing  advocated  (and  I  am 
prepared  deliberately  to  advocate  it),  in  an  essay, 
whose  purport  is  religious.  If  there  were  more 
of  the  salt  of  wit  in  our  ordinary  conversation,  its 
general  vapid  nature  would  be  corrected,— it 
would  turn  less  upon  the  character,  conduct,  plans, 
and  arrangements  of  our  neighbours, — topics  upon 
which  perhaps  it  can  never  turn  with  any  profit, 
and  upon  which  it  rarely  turns  without  trenching 
hard  upon  sin.    It  is  to  be  deplored  that  there  is  so 


In  nocerd  Recreat  1 1 1 1 

little  wit  in  the  world,  not  that  there  li  bo  much  ; 
In  default  of  wit  it  \s  thai 

of  tlu'  mind,  so::  tpty  gossip,  and  some  by 

fonl   and   obscene   c  ion,  whi<  -   in 

them  the  deadly  gangrene  of  impure  Inst    It 
d  often  said  that  Wit  and  Wisdom  are  twin 

me.  They  are  BO  nearly  al- 
lied, that  one  might  almost  say  f  feme 
faculty,  operating  at  its  different  poles.  u  \Yrit," 
says  Aristotle, "  is  the  ooneeption  of  inoongrtri- 

."  And  is  not  wisdom  the  perception  Of  har- 
monies? What  is  the  perception  of  analogies 
running  through  all  the  firioufl  departments  of 

nature, — the  domain  of  sight,  the  domain  of  sound, 
the  domain  of  touch, ! — but  wisdom  or  philosophy  I 
What  is  a  parable,  but  the  exhibition  of  a  har- 
mon;  iating  between  God's  works  of  Grace 

on  the  one  hand,  and  His  works  of  Nature  or 
Providence  on  the  other?     Is  there  any  wise  work 
in  any  department  of  literature,  art,  or  science, 
which  is  not  ultimately  founded  on  the  apprehen- 
sion of  harmonies, — the  discrimination  of  true  and 
harmonies  from  those  which   are  false  and 
shallow  and  superlicial  I     Now  would  not  he  who 
harmonies   most   readily,  have  also  the 
heal   discernment  of  incongruities?     He  who 
has  the  liveliest   faculty  of  comparison,  must  he 
1  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


132  Words  of  Business  and 

not  also  have  the  liveliest  faculty  of  contrast? 
He  who  is  keenly  alive  to  congruities,  must  he 
not  be  alive  also  to  incongruities  ?  Or,  in  other 
words,  must  not  he  who  has  in  him  wisdom,  pos- 
sess wrapped  up  in  that  very  gift  the  kindred 
faculty  of  wit  ? 

And  it  is  pleasing  to  see  in  experience,  that 
oftentimes  the  men  of  most  depth  and  seriousness 
of  character — the  men  who  in  their  closets  have 
taken  the  most  earnest  view  of  life  and  have  cul- 
tivated heavenly  Wisdom  most  largely,  have  also 
been  men  of  lively  fancy,  sprightly  and  agreeable 
repartee — seem  to  have  had  within  them  a  spring 
of  joy  and  merriment  bubbling  up,  when  the  ob- 
struction of  serious  affairs  was  removed,  and  cov- 
ering with  fertility  even  the  leisure  hours  of  their 
lives.  The  world's  wisest  men  have  mingled  mirth 
with  earnestness, — they  have  not  gone  about  with 
starched  visage,  prim  manner,  or  puritanical  grim- 
ace. If  they  have  been  deeply  enwrapped  (as 
the  holiest  and  best  men  always  are  enwrapped) 
in  the  shadows  and  clouds  of  life, — they  have  ever 
and  anon  walked  in  its  lights, — have  not  despised 
those  gleams  of  merriment  which  shoot  athwart 
our  path,  as  a  relief  from  the  pressure  and  burden 
of  our  work  and  responsibilities. 

Which  of  us,  man  or  boy,  has  half  the  playful- 
ness of  the  poet  Cowper  ?    Which  of  us  can  write 


a  tottOT  UkQ  him, — e  sparkling  with  sallies 

that   never  wound,  b«1Hi  elaborated,  • 

framed  of  set  purpose,  hut  thrown  off  in  the  atte- 
nd buoyancy  of  high  spirits,  thrown  off  limply, 

graceful  '1  whir'  man 

approach  him  in  the  earnestness 

of  his  retigionn  feelings — which  of  na  views  sin  in 

colours  half  so  dark  as   it  wore  to  his  eyes,  01 
equally  prepared  in  ntind  to  apprehend  that   I. 
of  God  in  Christ,  which  stands  out  against  the 
hlack  mass  of  human  guilt  as  a  rainhow  Against 
the  thunder-cloud! 

Tin  iv  is,  however,  one  passage  of  Scripture, 
which,  00  first  Bight,  seems  adverse  to  what  I 
have  said,  and  which  requires  explanation,  before 
I  quit  this  branch  of  the  subject.  In  the  Epi 
to  the  Ephesians,  St.  Pan]  appears  to  forbid,  under 
the  comprehensive  term  "jesting,"  every  species 
of  pleasantry.  His  words  (and  that  portion  of 
them  about  which  no  question  can  arise  ought  to 
be  very  awful  words  to  many)  are  these : — "  But 
fornication,  and  all  uncleanness  and  covetousi; 
let  it  not  be  once  named  among  you  as  becomeih 

to  jrractice  such  things  does  not  n 
the  strictness  of  God's  requirements — we  are  not 
even  to  mention  them),  "  neither  filthiness  nor  fool- 
ish talking," — so  far  all  is  char.     That  such  spe- 
cies of  conversation  should  be  forbidden,  is  in  ac- 


134:  Words  of  Business  and 

cordance  with  all  that  we  should  expect  from  the 
purity  of  Christian  precept.  But  the  Apostle  acids, 
"  nor  jesting,  which  are  not  couvenient ;  but  rather 
giving  of  thanks."  JSTow  let  me  again  remind  my 
readers  that  whatever  precept  the  Scripture  gives, 
not  only  may  be  carried  out  by  prayer  and  exer- 
tion, but  must  be  carried  out  at  all  hazards,  and 
that  to  the  letter.  God,  when  He  has  laid  down  a 
Law,  will  not  indulge  us  in  the  smallest  deviation 
from  it.  If  in  this  or  any  other  passage  He  forbids 
pleasantry,  then  pleasantry  is  a  sin — a  sin  which 
like  any  other  sin,  grievous  or  slight,  requires  all 
the  efficacy  of  Christ's  Blood  to  atone  for  it,  and 
all  the  Grace  of  His  Spirit  to  correct  and  eradicate 
it  from  our  hearts.  It  is  a  false  and  wholly  un- 
scriptural  view,  that  God  lays  down  unduly  strict 
rules  by  way  of  securing  as  large  an  amount  of 
obedience  as  can  be  extracted  from  us,  and  that  the 
smaller  and  more  harmless  infringements  of  those 
rules  will  be  by  Him  overlooked.  !N"o  infringe- 
ment of  a  divine  rule  is  harmless — every  such  in- 
fringement is  full  charged  with  guilt  and  misery 
and  eternal  ruin.  Step  out  of  the  paling  of  the 
Divine  Law  at  one  point,  and  you  place  yourself 
out  of  the  shelter  of  the  whole  Law  :  you  are  then 
beyond  the  reach  of  mercy,  except  through  a  Me- 
diator. "  For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole 
law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of 


Innocent  Recreation  not  I  135 

all."      Let  us  ascertain  t;  !y,  whether  God 

does  forbid  pleasantry;  for,  in  that  case,  no  laugfa 

of  o  •  ever  ring  again,  no  humor.' 

r  proceed  from  our  lips,  no  smile  ever  sit  upon 

our  countenance.     The  word  translated  jesting  is 
evrpanekia.     According  to   its  derivation,  it    p 

eriy  means  u  versatility  n — aptness  in  taming  to 

anotlier  topic,  or  another  resource,  when  one  topic 
or  resonr  Unigh  exhausted.    You  see  that 

it' we  regard  the  word  according  to  its  origin  and 
nology,  no  not i*>ii  of  pleasantry  whatever  at- 
tache- to  it.  Such  a  notion,  however,  may  6u 
quently  have  gathered  round  the  world,  far  all  that, 
— and  I  believe  that  it  did.  I  have  not  time  to  go 
through  the  proof  of  my  position.  But  I  appre- 
hend that  ill  the  former  words,  u  iilthiness  and  fool- 
ish talking,"  the  Apostle  is  forbidding  all  coarse  and 
empty  conversation, — that  it  then  strikes  him  that 
something  more  beyond  these  has  to  be  forbidden 
— that  there  is  a  kind  of  conversation  very  rife 
among  men  of  the  world,  and  very  common  in 
what  is  termed  the  mo>t  lashioiiahle society,  which 
is  not  outwardly  coarse  and  obscene  (and  so  not "  fil- 
thiness"),  nor  yet  foolish  in  the  usual  sense  of 
foil;.  .  mixed  with  quick  muendoee  and  smart 

repartees  (and  so  not  exactly  "  foolish  talking"), 
but  in  which  im;  <  s  are  implied  though  not 

expressed,  and  in  which  the  natural  liveliness  of 


136  Words  of  Business  and 

parts  of  one  who  knows  that  Society  will  not  toler- 
ate any  thing  very  gross,  vents  itself  in  an  insinu- 
ation, either  full  of  moral  mischief,  or  armed  with 
a  sting. 

"  Let  there  be  no  coarseness,  nor  vapid  and 
gossiping  conversation, — no,  nor  even  the  re- 
fined, but  sinful  raillery  of  the  man  of  fash- 
ion." Such  is,  I  believe,  a  fair  paraphrase  of  the 
passage.1 

The  word,  if  this  be  its  meaning,  gives  us  the 
salutary  warning,  that  albeit  pleasantry  itself  be 
no  sin,  it  is  under  certain  circumstances  very 
closely  allied  with  sin. 

By  way  of  preserving  pure  this  offspring  of  the 
heart's  merriment,  three  cautions  should  be  rigidly 
observed : 

First ;  from  all  our  pleasantry  must  be  ban- 
ished any,  even  the  remotest,  allusion  to  impurity 
— which  forms  the  staple  of  much  of  this  world's 
wit.  Pleasantry  should  be  the  fruit  of  a  childlike 
playfulness,  and  of  a  heart  buoyant,  because  it 
has  not  the  consciousness  of  guile.  If  you  once 
make  it  the  vehicle  of  uncleanness,  you  foul  it  at 
the  spring. 

1  On  turning  to  Archbishop  Trench's  Synonyms  of  the  New 
Testament,  I  see  that  he  takes  this  view  of  the  meaning  of  the  word 
in  question.  To  his  excellent  work  I  refer  the  reader  who  wishes 
to  follow  up  the  subject. 


GmoemU  Becnaiitm  not  TdL >.         137 

Secondly;  al  sarcasms  as  hurt  un 

'ii,  wound  his  feelings,  and  giye  him  unneces- 
sary' pain,  arc  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  law  of 
(In  iti.  i        :  lashes  of  wit  should  be 

like  those  of  the  summer  lightning,  lambent 
innocuous. 

Thirdly;    all   such  pleasantries  as  bri 
tiling  sacred   into  ridicule — or,  without   bring] 
it   actually  into  ridicule,  connect  with   it,  in  the 
minds  of   others,  ludicrous  associations,  so  that 
they  can  ne\  t,  or  hear  the  words, 

without  the  ludicrous  observation  being  presci 
to  them, — are  carefully  to  be  eschewed.  At  all 
times  our  primary  duty, — that  which  is  inalien- 
ably binding  upon  us,  and  from  which  no  plea  of 
entertainment  can  excuse  us, — is  to  hallow  God's 
Name. 

Let  us  close  our  present  remarks,  by  the  pray- 
er that  God  would  restore  to  us  that  purity  of 
heart,  which  forms  the  groundwork  of  a  sound  and 
Christian  mirth  fulness, — that  lie  would  enable  us 
so  to  believe  in  the  eflicacy  of  His  Son's  Blood. 
to  have  our  conscience  sprinkled  from  all  guilt 
thereby, — that  by  the  operation  of  Grace  Ee 
would  d  11  intention  stand  aloof  from  all 

evil, — so  that  the  burden  of  nnibrgiven  and  cher- 
ished sin  may  no  longer  make  our  hearts  to  stoop  ; 
but  that  joyfulness  may  enter  there  to  be  a  per- 


138  Note. 

petual  guest,  and  that,  whatever  we  put  our  hand 
unto,  we  may  rejoice. 


NOTE  ON  CHAPTER  VII.,  p.  131. 

"  What  is  the  perception  of  analogies  running  through  all  the  va- 
rious departments  of  nature, — the  domain  of  sight,  the  domain 
of  sound,  the  domain  of  touch, — but  Wisdom  or  Philosophy  ?  " 

As  an  example  of  this  perception  of  analogies,  I  extract  the 
following  passage  from  the  "Advancement  of  Learning."  The 
Author  is  speaking  of  those  elementary  philosophical  axioms, 
which  he  calls  "  Philosophia  Prima :  " — 

"  Is  not  the  ground,  which  Machiavel  wisely  and  largely  dis- 
coursed concerning  governments,  that  the  way  to  establish  and 
preserve  them,  is  to  reduce  them  ad  principia,  a  rule  in  religion 
and  nature,  as  well  as  in  civil  administration  ?  Was  not  the  Per- 
sian magic  a  reduction  or  correspondence  of  the  principles  and 
architectures  of  nature  to  the  rules  and  policy  of  governments  ? 
Is  not  the  precept  of  a  musician,  to  fall  from  a  discord  or  harsh 
accord  upon  a  concord  or  sweet  accord,  alike  true  in  affection  ? 
is  not  the  trope  of  music,  to  avoid  or  slide  from  the  close  or 
cadence,  common  with  the  trope  of  rhetoric  of  deceiving  expec- 
tation? Is  not  the  delight  of  the  quavering  upon  a  stop  in 
music  the  same  with  the  playing  of  light  upon  the  water  ?  Are 
not  the  organs  of  the  senses  of  one  kind  with  the  organs  of  reflec- 
tion, the  eye  with  a  glass,  the  ear  with  a  cave  or  strait  deter- 
mined and  bounded  ?  Neither  are  these  only  similitudes,  as  men 
of  narrow  observation  may  conceive  them  to  be,  but  the  same  foot- 
steeps  of  nature,  treading  or  printing  upon  several  subjects  or 
matters." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SPEECH    THE    INSTRUMENT  OF   PROPHECY   AND 
8ACRTF1 

"  3Lrt  tt»c  tooiO  of  Const  ctocll  in  you  vicbln  in  all  tois&om : 
tcarftinfl  ano  aomouistjinfl  our  anotijcr  in  psalms  ano  Injmns 
ano  spiritual  souqs,  sinfliiifl  uritt)  uxacc  in  your  fcearts  to  ttjc 
loro."— Got.  iii.  If. 

44  3Wc  pat|)  maoc  us  priests."— Rk 

In  our  last  Chapter,  we  were  engaged  in  inquir- 
ing what  sort  of  words  Our  Lord  censures,  and 
war'  unfit,  under  the  term  "idle." 

We  defined  Idle  words  to  be  such  as  do  not 
fulfil  th<  which  the  faculty  of 

given. 

This  definition  threw  us  back  upon  the  inquiry : 
* '  What  are  the  objects  or  final  causes  of  Language  V9 

And  the  two  objects,  to  the  considi 
which  our  last  I  was  devoted,  were — the 

carrying  on  the  necessary  business  of  life,  and  the 
entertainment  of  the  mind. 


140  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

These  are  two  of  the  ends,  which  the  gift  of 
Speech  was  designed  to  promote,  and  such  words 
as  really  promote  either  of  these  ends  cannot  be 
stigmatized  as  idle  words. 

But  words  have  higher  ends  than  these ;  and 
what  those  higher  ends  may  be,  we  now  proceed 
to  consider. 

St.  Paul  exhibits  these  higher  ends  in  the  first 
passage  which  stands  at  the  head  of  this  Chapter. 
I  believe  that  in  our  version  it  is  erroneously  punc- 
tuated, and  that  it  should  run  thus :  "  Let  the  word 
of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  " — [a  general  exhor- 
tation, and  one  having  respect  to  their  state  of 
mind ; — the  "Word  of  Christ  was  to  be  stored  up 
in  their  hearts,  as  water  in  the  treasury  of  the 
great  deep,  and  to  flow  forth  from  their  mouths 
in  a  twofold  current, — first,  a  current  towards 
man,  irrigating  the  moral  world  with  fertility,— 
secondly,  a  current  of  thanksgiving  and  praise, 
which  should  pour  itself  into  the  Bosom  of 
God] — "Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you 
richly ; — in  all  wisdom  teaching  and ,  admonishing 
one  another  " — (this  is  the  highest  use  of  Speech, 
as  it  looks  towards  man) — "  in  psalms  and  hymns 
and  spiritual  songs,  singing  thankfully  "  (sv  #apm 
sometimes  has  this  meaning)  "in  your  hearts  to 
the  Lord  " — (this  is  the  highest  use  of  Speech,  as 
it  looks  towards  God).     These  two  ends,  then, 


1 1 1 

may  bo  shortly  stated  as  being  I.   EdJ 

and  II.  Praise.'     Let  us  say  a  word  of  each  of 

them. 

I.   /  This  word  need  not  bo  con- 

1  exetariyely  to  Moral  or  Spiritual  Edifica- 
tion,   It  may  be  made  t«>  embnu  oommit 

nication  of  knowledge  from  man  to  man. 

lie  who  by  words  throws  knowledge  into  the 
mind  of  another,  which  did  not  exist  there  pre- 
viously, or  developes  in  that  mind  sonic  idea 
which  was  latent  in  it,  hut  not  vet  brought  t<>  the 
birth,  certainly  edifies  by  means  of  Speech.  T! 
are  other  kinds  of  truth  beside!  Scriptural  truth, 
(why  should  we  liar  to  admit  it?)  and  lie  who 
communicates  to  another  any  kind  of  truth  (wor- 
thy of  the  name)  is  employed  in  the  work  of  Edu- 
cation. In  a  certain  important  sense,  too,  all 
truth  is  God's  message  and  God's  revelation, 
though  not  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the  Holy 
Scriptures  are.  God  is  said  to  be  the  Father  of 
lights— observe,  not  of  one  light,  but  of  all  lights. 
Wherever  there  is  light,  it  is  a  ray  emanating  from 
God.  The  Scriptures  are  the  organ  by  which  God 
reveals — not  all  truth,  but — all  spiritual  truth, — 
all   such  truth  as  pertains  to  Salvation.     Tl. 

many  kinds  of  truth,  not  at  all  bearing  Upon 
the  question  of  Eternal  Salvation.     And   t 
1  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Chapter. 


142  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

truths,  not  affecting  our  eternal  interests,  God 
communicates  through  other  instruments,  which 
we  need  not  scruple  to  call  organs  of  revelation, 
if  only  we  understand  clearly  in  what  lower  sense 
those  words  are  applied.  The  truths  of  Natural 
Philosophy  are  revealed  to  us  by  the  human 
Reason,  operating  upon  the  Phenomena  of  Na- 
ture. The  law  of  gravitation  is  one  of  these 
truths ;  it  was  a  great  light,  when  first  it  dawned 
upon  the  mind  of  Newton,  and  from  that  mind 
was  diffused  abroad.  And  it  was  a  light  which, 
like  all  other  lights,  came  from  the  Father  of 
lights.  It  was  God  who  gave  Newton  his  reason, 
and  designed  him  (fore-ordained  him,  if  you  will) 
to  discover  by  it  such  laws  and  principles  of  Na- 
ture, heretofore  unknown,  as  Beason  is  competent 
to  discover. 

Again,  the  truths  which  we  learn  from  expe- 
rience are  lights.  God  sends  the  experience,  and 
designs  us  to  learn  by  it,  and  gives  us  Eeason,  to 
operate  upon  the  experience,  in  order  that  we 
may  learn.  If  we  desire  to  know  a  truth  of  ex- 
perience, for  the  guidance  of  our  individual  lives, 
we  must  set  our  minds  and  memories  to  work 
upon  what  has  befallen  us,  and  gain  the  truth  by 
this  process.  If  we  desire  to  know  a  truth  of  ex- 
perience, for  the  guidance  of  societies,  we  must 
read  History,  which  is  the  record  of  the  expe- 


Pt0pk§oy  cmd  8aot\fio$* 

rienee  of  c.<nimiinitus,  ami  there  find  what  causes 
have  operated  to  produce  the  prosperity  and 
cay  of  states.     These  truths,  when  W6  haw 
them,  are  a  light  5   hut  they  are  given  through 
the  o^gan  i ■:  ooe,  or  of  Reason  eperati 

opOfl  .  DOt    through  that  of  Holy  Scrip- 

ture. 

In   vain   will  you   inquire  of  Holy  Scripture, 

what    is  the   hest    form   of   civil    government,   or 

wha'  MOM  which   retains  the  Earth  within 

■hit  ; — the  Scripture  is  not  the  orpin, 

through  whioh  G  these  truths 

oU. 

Again,  Instinct  is  a  light,  —  a  scintillation 
which  the  Father  of  lights  has  disparted  among 

interior  creatures.  Acting  upon  it,  their  lives 
are  preserved,  and  their  interests  secured.  It 
may  he  hut  a  glimmering,  but  still  it  reveals  to 
them  all  that  it  was  designed  to  reveal. 

There  are,  then,  many  forms  of  truth,  accord- 
ing to  the  different  processes  by  which  God  com- 
municates it, — and  he  who  conveys  truth  to  an- 
other, so  long  as  it  be  of  an  innocent,  and  not  of 
a  corrupting,  character, — lie  who  diffuses  a  scrap 
of  useful  knowledge,  or  divulges  a  piece  of  curious 
information, — is  contributing  to  the  great  end  of 
Edification,  and  so  furthering  one  of  the  objects 
for  which  Language  was  given. 


144  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

But,  of  course,  the  highest  and  most  blessed 
form  of  Edification  is  that  by  which  we  com- 
municate to  one  another  Religious  or  Scriptural 
Truth — by  which  we  impart  that  wisdom,  which 
is  man's  peculiar  province  (for  we  are  told  that 
"  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom,  and  to  de- 
part from  evil  is  understanding"),  and  without 
which  the  most  abundant  resources  of  genius 
and  learning  are  but  gilded  dross  and  a  splendid 
folly. 

]STow  the  climax  of  this  form  of  Edification  is 
called  a  Sermon, — a  sermon  being  a  solemn  ad- 
dress, made  by  one  man  to  others,  on  subjects  of 
the  highest  import,  such  as  affect  their  eternal 
welfare.  It  is  not  indeed  every  man's  province 
or  business  to  preach  a  sermon.  But  it  is  every 
man's  province  to  speak  unto  edification,  and  that 
not  simply  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  mind,  but 
also  to  the  improvement  of  the  heart.  Only  the 
man  set  apart  for  that  function  preaches  formally 
and  in  the  pulpit,  but  the  man  not  set  apart  must 
equally  teach  and  admonish  his  neighbour  "  in  all 
wisdom."  "Ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one, 
that  all  may  learn  and  all  may  be  comforted," 
says  the  Apostle.  This  precept  has  its  primary 
reference  no  doubt  to  the  miraculous  gift  of  Proph- 
ecy :  still  its  spirit  and  principle,  like  that  of 
every  other  Scriptural  precept,  is  to  be  carried 


145 

out  lays,  And  ln>\v  it  I 

see  not.  I  hristian  laity  hold  them- 

from  moral  and  spiritual  adm< 
tion,  and  resent  such  admonition,  when  it  | 
from  any  one  bui  a  clergyman.     I 
duty,  as  it  ooghl  t«>  be  esteemed  every  man'.-  | 
i  say  a  word  for  God  in  society,  when 
I  may  be  discreetly  and  properly  intro- 
duced— to  bo   faithful  with   li is  more  intim 
friends,  in  representing  their  defects  of  character 
and  -t«»  be  thankful  himself  for  receiving 

such  representations — and  ever  t<>  be  on  the  watch, 
to  arrest  an  opportunity  of  profitable  convi 

II.  We  dow  come  t»>  the  highest  of  all  the 
end>  for  which  the  faculty  of  Speech  was  given — 

the  Praise  of  God.     "In   psalms  and  livings  and 

itoal  songs,  singing  thankfully  in  your  he 
to  the  Lord."  "  Therewith,"  says  St.  James  of 
the  tongue, "  therewith  bless  we  God,  even  the 
"By  Him,"  says  the  Apostle  to  the 
a,  "  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  to 
God  continually,  that  is,  the  fruit  of  our  lips,  giving 
than!.  Xame." 

We  have  Seen  in  the  course  of  these  pages  that 

man  is  provided,  by  his  natural  constitution,  with 

resources  in  himself  for  the   maintenance  of  his 

bodily  and  mental  health,  and  for  carrying  on  the 

7 


146  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

business  of  life.  The  power  of  motion  in  his  limbs 
enables  him  to  take  exercise — and  perhaps  the 
form  of  exercise  which  is  taken  by  the  simple  move- 
ment of  the  limbs,  without  any  extrinsic  adventi- 
tious aid,  is  of  all  forms  the  most  conducive  to 
health. .  For  the  recreation  of  the  mind  he  has  a 
resource  in  the  faculty  of  Speech.  And  the  same 
faculty  enables  him  to  carry  on  the  business  of  life, 
with  a  speed  and  facility  which  no  contrivance  of 
art  can  rival.  What  a  clumsy  and  tardy  method  of 
communication  is  that  by  paper  and  ink,  as  com- 
pared with  the  speaking  face  to  face  !  Nay,  even 
the  electric  telegraph  itself,  the  most  marvellous  in- 
vention of  modern  times,  is  slow  in  its  conveyance 
of  ideas  in  comparison  of  the  human  mouth.  So 
that  for  the  business  and  enjoyment  of  this  life,  man 
is  ampty  furnished  in  himself  with  all  resources — 
he  need  not  travel  out  of  his  own  nature — he  has 
his  instruments  ready  at  hand. 

But  man  is  made  for  transactions  of  a  higher  de- 
scription than  any  which  relate  to  this  earth ;  he 
has  communications  to  hold  with  Heaven,  and  in- 
tercourse to  carry  on  with  God :  he  is  a  "  Janus 
bifrons," — with  one  face  he  looks  towards  earth, 
with  another  he  confronts  unseen  things,  and  re- 
gards the  invisible  God.  We  should  expect  then 
to  find  him  furnished  with  resources  for  heavenly, 
as  well  as  for  earthly,  intercourse.     And  such  is 


y  and  &  117 

eed   tho   case.    u  With  i 
.'"     Ever}  erne  lu*  the  instrument  of  »  spirit- 
ual within  him.    The  spiritual 

Inlnu  and  Hymns,  and  the  Enstnn  i 

wherewith  it  is  (.lion  4  man. 

What   a  noble  sacrifice!     With   what    i 

facility,  and  grace,  may  the  instrument  falfi] 
end]     I 

;*  intellig  1  an  element  <>i*  I 

ing.    Not  so  in  a  piece  of  instrumental  music,  or 
in  what  eously  called  the  song  of  birds. 

0 articulate  sounds, — beautifully  touching, 
exquisitely  pathetic,  as  some  of  them  arc- 
only  feeling  without  intelligence, — they  are  the 
v  of  the  soul   and   not  of  the  spirit.     On  the 
r  hand,  a  speech  or  add;'.  Ingle 

[lent     It  is  the  voice  of  the  Reason:  1  d 

that  it   may  move  the  feelings,  and  often  aims 

at  doing  so;  but  the  body — the  substantial  part — 
eh  must  always  be  its  argument  (the  ap- 
peals to  the  affections,  which  a 

liary  to  his  ailment),  an  argument 

i-  the  province  of  the  spirit,  not  of  the  soul  of  man. 
A  song  combines  both — the  articulations  of 
Reason  and  the  gushing  forth  of  feeling, — and 
therefore  a  spiritual  song, — a  song  addressed  to 
God, — embrace  the  highest  exercise  of  the  big] 
human  powers. 


148  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

And  let  me  add,  lest  I  should  seem  to  exclude 
from  this  graud  service  of  Praise  all  those  whom 
defect  of  ear  or  voice  precludes  from  literal  sing- 
ing— that  a  Poem  is  a  Song,  and  that,  therefore,  a 
Psalm  or  Hymn,  even  though  not  sung,  but  simply 
recited,  is  a  spiritual  song.  The  Ancients  were 
aware  of  this ;  and  accordingly  with  them  the  poet 
was  identified  with  the  minstrel,  and  the  same 
word  "  carmen  "  is  employed  in  Latin  to  denote 
the  effusions  of  both.  For  indeed  either  the  rhyme 
and  metre  of  Poetry,  or  its  more  essential  attri- 
butes of  figure,  image,  and  lofty  diction,  may  be 
justly  regarded  as  the  outcoming  of  feeling,  and 
as  a  substitute  for  the  musical  tones  of  the  voice. 

Contemplate  Redeemed  Man,  then, — contem- 
plate yourself, — as  having  been  constituted  the 
High  Priest  of  God.  It  is  of  necessity  that  you 
should  have  something  to  offer.  And  the  tongue 
supplies  you  with  a  resource  for  sacrifice.  God 
provides  you  not  with  a  lamb,  but  with  a  song, 
for  a  burnt-offering.  With  Angels  and  Arch- 
angels, and  all  the  Company  of  Heaven,  you  are 
required  to  pour  forth  your  soul  in  strains  of 
thanksgiving  and  praise  to  the  Most  High. 

This  is  a  sacrifice,  from  the  offering  of  which 
no  one  is  exempt.  It  is  the  sacrifice  appointed 
for  Redeemed  Man  in  his  priestly  character.  For 
let  it  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  Christians — 


149 

I  of  ( i«"l — :nv.  in  a  certain  : 
imp  ense,  priests,  and  thai  apon  all  of 

them,  m  such,  devolve  priestly  functions,     u  Be 
hath  mads  as  | 
rightly  apprehended,  fori  in  the  smallest 

.    with    that    of  a   constituted    Ministn 

fulfilment  of  certain  functions,  which 
none   may,    without    awful    presumption,    invade. 

Why  should  the  two  doctrinee  be  more  inooo 

imder  the* New  Covenant   than   the 

under  the  Old  ?     It  is  said  of  the  whole  Israelii 
people,  in  the  most  distinct  and  emphatic  terms: 
"Ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  Kingdom  of  Priests,  and 
an   holy  nation/3  «  priests;   and  as  a 

priest,  each  male  was  to  present  himself  before 

,  with  an  offering,  at  the  three  great  F< 
vals.      Yet   when    Korah,   Dathan,   and   Abiram 
presumed  upon  this  sanctity  of  the  entire  congre- 

•n  to  arrogate  to  themselves  the  office  of  burn- 
ing incense,  the  Divine  di.-pleasure  was  ms 
in  a  form  so  peculiar,  that  it  has  no  exact  parallel 
throughout  the  whole  compass  of  Scripture. 

solution  of  the  apparent  inconsistency  be- 
tween the  priestly  functions  of  the  whole  congre- 
6   of  the  Ministry,  I   take  to   bo 
this :    The  line  of  Aaron  under  the  ( >ld  Covenant, 
and  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  under  the  2s  ew, 

Ilepresentatives  before  God  of  the  entire  Peo- 


150  .  Speech  the  Instrument  of 

pie.  Representatives, — that  is  the  idea.  Now 
it  does  not  follow  that  whatever  the  representative 
is  authorized  to  do,  that  the  party  represented 
may  do.  All  Englishmen,  who  have  a  certain 
stake  in  the  country,  may  vote  at  an  election  of  a 
member  for  the  Lower  House,  and  then  they  are 
in  their  place,  and  act  constitutionally ;  but  most 
assuredly  they  would  put  themselves  out  of  their 
place,  if  they  were  to  force  a  passage  into  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  on  the  ground  of  their 
having  a  voice  in  the  Government,  attempt  to 
make  a  sj)eech  there.  That  is  simply  arrogating 
a  function  which  is  none  of  theirs. 

This  is  a  homely  image ;  but  it  may  help  to 
impress  the  truth  upon  the  reader's  mind.  We, 
the  Ministry,  are  the  Representatives  before  God 
of  you — who  are  yourselves  his  Royal  Priesthood. 
You  may, — nay,  you  must  daily — seek  to  edify 
others  with  your  lips  as  the  passing  occasions  of 
life  give  you  opportunity  of  doing  so.  You  may, 
— nay,  you  must  daily — present  the  Spiritual  Sa- 
crifice of  Praise  (not  only  praying  to  God  for 
what  you  need,  but  glorifying  Him  in  Psalms  and 
Hymns  for  all  you  receive,  and  specially  for  Christ, 
the  Unspeakable  Gift).  But  as  it  did  not  follow 
that  an  Israelite,  because  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Priests,  might  therefore  slay  a  victim 
at  the  Tabernacle  door,   or  burn  incense  before 


I.'.l 

deho\;ih,  so  it  do 

lined,  may  w  low-Ohri  the 

offer  op  prayers  m  their  nai 
or  bless  them  in  the  Qreat  Nan  iune 

I ;  much   leee  that  he  may  break  and  bless 

I  Wine,  which  under 
the  Law  pond  to  the  Sacrifices  under  the 

It  is  weH  for  as,  however,  to  bear  in  mind,  that, 

while  the  Ministry  of  the  Minister  will  paBfl  away, 
that  of  the  Christian  will  endure  f.-r  ewr.      As  the 

bloody  sacrifices,  which  were  th<  of  a 

ing    Ohri  (hand   upon  the 

Church  of  God,  have  lied  away,  so  also  shall  the 
ie  Lord,  which  is  the  commemoration 
of  Christ  already  come,  pass  away   when   lie   re- 
turns.   The  ixreat  Ordinance  of  the  Gospel  b 

>r  it.  We  are  directed  to  show  forth 
the  Lord's  death*  by  the  elements  of  Bread  and 
Wine  till, — and  only  till, — I!  .    But  even 

then,  although  the  Ministry  of  the  }<\  will 

t  an  end,  the  ministry  of  Psalms  and  Hymns 
will  continue,  and  protract  Itself  throughout  Eter- 
nity.    The  great  and  enduring  nobility  of  Pr; 

:  it  shall  abide  for  ever,  that  it  is  the 

arch  of  God,  which  has  the 

stamp  01  .ity  upon   it.     When  there  is  no 

I  in  the  heart,  no  want  to  be  supplied,  Prayer 


152  Note. 

shall  expire.  When  every  soul,  save  the  irreme- 
diably lost,  has  been  both  brought  to  Christ, 
Preaching  shall  have  no  further  use.  When  Christ 
is  manifested  face  to  face,  we  shall  no  longer  need 
to  regard  Him  through  the  dark  mirror  of  Sacra- 
ments. Praise  and  Thanksgiving  alone  shall  have 
a  duration  equal  with  the  Love  of  God  and  the 
glory  of  Christ — they  shall  roll  the  tale  of  that 
Love,  and  the  declaration  of  that  Glory,  along  the 
ages  of  an  Eternal  Future. 


NOTE  ON  CHAPTER  VI.,  p.  141 

"  Tkese  two  ends,  then,  may  be  shortly  stated  as  being  I.  Edification, 
and  II.  Praise.'''' 

In  other  words,  it  is  by  Speech  that  man  is  a  Prophet  (or 
Preacher)  to  his  brethren,  and  a  Priest  (for  the  offering  of  spirit- 
ual sacrifice)  to  God.  <* 

It  is  very  interesting  to  connect  this  idea  with  that  set  forth  in 
a  previous  Chapter,  where  we  pointed  out  the  heavenly  analogy  of 
the  connexion  between  Speech  and  Reason.  We  saw  in  that  Chap- 
ter, that  Speech  in  the  Nature  of  man,  is  the  representation  of 
Christ  in  the  Nature  of  God,  our  Lord  being  called  The  Word. 
Now  we  know  that  Christ  is  both  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King.  As 
a  Prophet,  He  was  sent  by  the  Father,  to  instruct  us  in  the  Law 
of  Liberty.  As  a  Priest,  He  negotiates  our  acceptance  on  the 
ground  of  His  Sacrifice,  and  intercedes  for  us  in  the  Heavenly 
Temple.  As  a  King,  He  rules  us  by  His  Providence,  His  Word, 
and  His  Spirit. 

Similarly,  Speech  may  be  viewed  in  a  threefold  aspect.     One 


Note. 

end  of  it  is  Am  Edification  of  Man.     A  il  Sa- 

isalma  and  Hymns,  wU  l^s  us  to  oiv 

God.    And  as  discriminating  man  from  the  i; 
may  justly  be  said  to  be  the  Royal  Faulty.     It  wi  rctoe 

tfal  sovereignty  over  the  beasts  of  I  A  lam  gave 

t!io:n  BMMA 

7* 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HINTS   FOK   THE   GUIDANCE   OF   CONVEESATION. 

44  ®®f)tvzfovtf  m$  btporto  JBrctijren,  let  t\}tv^  man  bt  shift  to 
ijtat,  stoTo  to  sjj  cafe.* '—James  i.  19. 

We  have  now  completed  our  consideration  of 
idle  words. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  definition  of  an  idle 
word,  by  ascertaining  what  words  are  not  idle. 
And  the  definition  is  this :  "  All  such  words  are 
idle,  as  contribute  nothing  either  to  the  carrying 
on  of  the  necessary  business  of  life,  or  to  innocent 
amusement,  or  to  the  lower  or  higher  forms  of 
instruction,  or  to  the  glory  of  Almighty  God." 

It  remains  that  I  should  furnish  some  practical 
hints  for  agreeable  and  useful  conversation.  And 
of  useful  conversation  there  are  two  kinds,  corre- 
sponding to  the  two  forms  of  instruction — a  lower 
and  a  higher.  We  may  converse  on  earthly  sub- 
jects of  interest,  or  on  divine  and  spiritual  top- 
ics.   Religious  conversation  shall  occupy  our  next 


or  t/«-  G  'nil  fa  nee  of  ( 

We  will  i 
a   on    Bill 
1.  but)  not  n 
Let  inciplea  Eoly 

vs  down   for  our  guidance  in 

mar 

The  passage  which  the  head  of  this 

I  the  chief  New 

which  affirms  the  principle  on  which  Conversation 

•  be  regulated.    "  Lei  every  man  be 
hear,  slow  to  speak."     Self-restraint  in  talk 
ami  readiness  to  receive  information,  is  to  !>•• 

olating  principle.    The  spirit  of  the  Old  T< 
meat   precept  on  thi  i,  is  the   same  with 

that  of  the  New:  i;  is  even  more  solemn. 

It  runs  thus:   "In   the  multitude  of  words   tl 
wanteth  nut  sin;  hut  he  that  rctVaineth  his  lips  is 
wise." 

It  is  true  that,  in  the  iirst  of  tl  ^ges, 

the  primary  reference  is  in  all  probability  tot: 
words  by  which  religious  instruction  is  to  be  c 
d.      For,  in   the   immediately  preceding  con- 
ies has  been  speaking  of  God's  ha\ 
by  the   word  of  truth,— that  is,  by 
i  of  the  Gospel, — and  he  then  prosectl 
the  idea,  by  inculoati  taint  in  speaking 

tching  the  Gospel.    MW1  .  my  beloi 

brethren"  (observe  the  signiii  the  u  wl: 


156    Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation, 

fore ; "  it  shows  that  the  precept,  which  it  intro- 
duces, is  the  legitimate  conclusion  from  a  doctrine 
previously  affirmed),  "Wherefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,  let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear  [this 
word  of  truth],  and  slow  to  speak  it," — exactly 
harmonizing  with  the  advice  given  further  on  in 
the  Epistle  (chap.  iii.  1),  "My  brethren,  be  not 
many  masters  "  (fir]  ttoXXol  diddanaXoi  yiveade, — lit- 
erally, "  Be  not  many  of  you  teachers  ") — do  not 
lightly  covet  the  position  of  an  instructor  in  Di- 
vine Truth ;  for  thereby  your  responsibilities  will 
be  increased,  and  your  shortcoming  aggravated — 
"  knowing  that  we  "  (the  ministers  of  God's  Word, 
the  Apostle  among  the  number)  "  shall  receive  " 
(if  unfaithful  to  our  trust)  "  the  greater  damna- 
tion." No  doubt,  with  the  more  educated  Jewish 
converts,  specially  those  who  had  imbibed  Phari- 
saical principles,  the  arrogating  to  themselves  the 
position  of  teachers  would  be  a  very  popular  form 
of  sin.  ~No  doubt  there  were  many  among  them 
who  trusted,  as  St.  Paul  intimates,  that  "  they 
themselves  were  guides  of  the  blind,  lights  of 
them  which  were  in  darkness,  instructors  of  the 
ignorant,  and  teachers  of  babes."  A  similar 
spirit  of  presumption  and  censoriousness  is  con- 
demned by  Our  Lord  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  where  He  recommends  His  hearers  to 
cast  out  first  the  beam  out  of  their  own  eye,  be- 


tlu-y  ani  ate  which  ii  in 

their  brothei 

It  seems  probable,  therefore,  thai  the  v, 

of  St.  James  refer,  in  the  Brit   in  >rds 

of  religions  instruction  or  admonition* 

Bni  onlv  in  the  first  We  must  not 

inordinate,  bni  very  importanl  n 
the  whole  range  of  Conversation.   Though 
should  always,  in  the  first  instance,  endeavour 
to  di  the  eontextnal  connexion  of  the  words 

of  Holy  Scripture,  no  passage  is  to  be  so  pinned 
down  to  one  narrow  department  of  meaning,  as 
that  it  shall  not  be  allowed  to  soar  above  its  con- 
A  large  and  comprehensive  view  must  be 
taken  of  Scriptural  precepts,  and  of  this  among 
the  rest.     One  great  use  of  words  is,  that  we  may 
thereby.    This  may  be  done  while  in- 
structing them  on  ordinary  subjects,  as  well  as  in 
a  higher  form,  by  direct  religious  teaching.    More- 
over, all  words — and  not  only  those  spoken  in  a 
religious  assembly — are  uttered  before  God.     He 
hears  them  all,  and  notes  their  character.     "  Lo, 
there  is  not  a  word  in  my  tongue,  but  Thou,  O 
!,  knowest  it  altogether."    So  that   involved 
ich  prohibitions  as — "When  ;  .  DS6  not 

repetitions,  as  the   heathen  do," — and   again, 
"  Be  not  rash  with  thy  mouth,  and   let  not   t1 
heart  be  hasty  to  utter  any  thing  before  God,  for 


158    Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation. 

God  is  in  heaven,  and  thou  upon  earth  :  therefore, 
let  thy  words  be  few," — is  a  general  precept  of 
self-restraint  in  the  use  of  words.  And,  accord- 
ingly, such  a  precept,  as  we  have  seen,  occurs  in 
the  Inspired  Yolume  without  any  special  refer- 
ence to  words  of  religious  instruction.  "  In  the 
multitude  of  words  there  wanteth  not  sin."  And 
again,  "  He  that  hath  knowledge  spareth  his 
words :  and  a  man  of  understanding  is  of  an  ex- 
cellent spirit."  "  Even  a  fool,  when  he  holdeth 
his  peace,  is  counted  wise  :  and  he  that  shutteth 
his  lips  is  esteemed  a  man  of  understanding." 

Having  thus  seen  what  principle  Holy  Scrip- 
ture lays  down  for  the  guidance  of  Conversation, 
let  us  proceed  to  give  some  hints  for  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  to  practice. 

I. . "  Let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear." 

A  desire  of  gaining  instruction  is  one  of  the 
first  dispositions  with  which  we  must  engage  in 
Conversation,  if  we  desire  to  make  it  profitable, — 
nay,  even  entertaining, — to  both  parties. 

Let  it  be  considered  a  fixed  and  ascertained 
truth,  that  your  neighbour,  however  he  may  be 
inferior  to  you  in  some  points  of  station  and  at- 
tainment, Is  able  to  impart  to  you  some  informa- 
tion which  you  do  not  possess,  This  is  not  a ' 
fancy,  it  is  a  real  truth.  "We  are  told  that  as  to 
spiritual  endowments  mankind  are  all  one  Body, — 


I 

that   the  Lord  has  not    1 

in  am-  i  :-man, — that 

the  wisdom,  knowledge,  ability  of  all  dm 

.  —that  one  has  the  qualifica- 
tion   which  hboiir   lacks,   and    lacks    the 

lification  which  ;  i&     And 

are  informed  farther  of  the  ngnift 
of  this  arrangement — it  is  pointed  out  to  us  how 

this  diversity  of  gifts  in   cadi   individual  OOntrib- 

I  only  to  tlic  dep  of  all  upon  < 

.  hut  t«>  mutual  interdependence      The 
\  that   there  should   he  an  im  de- 

mand among  men  for  the  services  of  one  another 
— that  the  need  of  one  man  may  he  supplied  out 
-undance  of  another,  and  that  the  person 
so  assisted  should  reciprocate,  by  giving  of  what 
he  possesses.     Aud  what  is  said  of  spiritual 

ad  of  this  world's  wealth,  applies  with 
equal  truth  to  the  great  stock  of  general  knowl- 
•  disparted  among  mankind.     It  too  is  un- 
ify distributed — one  man  has  the  ten  tale: 
another  live,  and  a  third  but  one  ; — yet  the 
!  cursory  experience  of  life,  the  daily  work  l»y 
which  the  livelihood  is  earned,  gft  portion 

of  it  to  all.     A  mechanic  knows  how  to  perfo 
manual  processes  of  his  trade— a  philosopher, 
the  princi  a  which 

the  :  .  would  probably  handle  the 


160    Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation. 

tools  in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  a  certain 
failure.  The  knowledge  of  books,  and  an  exten- 
sive acquaintance  with  literature,  may  easily  con- 
sist with  a  profound  ignorance  of  common  things, 
external  nature,  or  the  current  intelligence  of  the 
day.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  this  current  in- 
telligence, if  it  concern  worthy  subjects,  and  not 
the  frivolous  movements  of  modern  society, — if  it 
turn  upon  political  measures,  or  the  events  pass- 
ing on  the  theatre  of  the  world, — is  a  legitimate 
part  of  the  great  fund  of  knowledge,  and  that  a 
man  who  has  mastered  it  is  so  far  forth  a  better 
informed  man  than  he  who  has  not.  The  events 
of  the  day — those,  I  mean,  which  affect  our  coun- 
try and  the  world  at  large — are  the  elements  of 
Modern  History. 

Let  it  be  assumed,  then,  that  every  man  has 
some  piece  of  knowledge  to  impart  to  us,  which 
we  ourselves  do  not  possess. 

And,  this  being  the  case,  let  us,  when  either 
casually  or  by  design  wTe  enter  into  company,  set 
ourselves  to  the  finding  out  what  that  something 
is.  Possibly  it  is  nothing  in  our  own  line — noth- 
ing that  is  to  be  found  in  books — nothing  con- 
nected with  any  ambitious  department  of  knowl- 
edge. And,  therefore,  you  think  it  is  not  worth 
your  listening  to — much  less,  your  casting  about 
how  you  may  extract  it.     Oh  the  narrowness  of 


bfor  tin-  (i\t> <hince  of  C  I ,;  I 

human  mind,  and  the  contemptible  canity  of 
the  human  heart!    "Because  it  does  not  \l 
my  department,      b  though 

ly  a  subject  of  human  kn<  .  is  not  lufB- 

dignified  for  my  consideration,-- 

mind  happens  to  be  a  perfect  blank  upon  such 
topics, — therefore  I  need  not  care  to  know  aught 

!  my  brother,  mch  knowh 
though  it  moves  in  an  humble  sphere,  may  deal 
with  Bubjecta  which  affect  the  well  being  of  the 
human  race  more  intimately  than  any  Bubu'o 
study.  lime  processes  of  nature  are  not 

the  most  essential  processes.  It  is  not  the  flash 
of  the  lightning,  nor  the  distant  muttering  of  the 
thunder,  nor  the  tumbling  of  the  avalanche  rever- 
berated  bya  thousand  hills, — it  is  not  these  which 
are  the  most  potent  agencies  of  Nature  for  good, 
hut  rather  the  distillation  of  the  little  dewdrop  on 
the  blade  of  grass,  and  the  noiseless  stealing  down 
irly  and  the  latter  rain.     And  the  sublime 

•esses  of  Art  are  not  the  most  essentia]  pro- 
cesses. It  maybe  much  questioned,  whether  the 
manufacture  of  a  balloon  is  half  as  serviceable  to 
mankind  as  the  manufacture  of  a  drain.  And, 
similarly,  thy  brother's  humbler  knowledge  may 
pertain  to  matters  much  more  essential  than  thy 
more  aspiring  flight  of  wisdom. 

Our  practical  suggestion  is,  then,  that  an  effort 


162    Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation. 

should  be  made  to  extract  from  those,  with  whom 
the  occasions  of  life  bring  us  into  contact,  that  por- 
tion of  useful  knowledge,  which  out  of  the  common 
stock  they  have  appropriated  to  themselves.  "  Let 
every  man  be  swift  to  hear." 

What  are  the  subjects  in  which,  by  his  circum- 
stances and  position,  he  is  likely  to  be  interested  % 
How  can  I  draw  him  on  to  speak  of  them  %  If 
these  questions  were  uppermost  in  the  mind,  and  if 
conversation  were  pursued  in  the  spirit  of  them, 
it  would  not  be  so  barren  a  thing  as  it  often  is. 
The  sense  of  unprofitableness  which  so  often  op- 
presses us  after  an  hour  spent  in  company,  would 
be  effectually  dissipated.  And  more  than  this — 
such  a  plan  would  relieve  conversation  of  the  dul- 
ness  which  so  often  attaches  to  it.  How  often  do 
we  long  to  escape  from  the  necessity  of  talking, 
which  courtesy  imposes,  as  from  a  bitter  thralldom  ! 
How  often  does  the  exertion  become  intolerably 
irksome,  because  it  really  consists  in  fetching  up 
from  the  mine  of  the  Memory  small  buckets  full  of 
commonplace  and  formal  remarks,  in  which  neither 
party  feels  the  smallest  interest,  and  which  are 
only  bandied  to  and  fro  from  a  false  feeling  that 
to  drop  them  altogether  would  not  be  well-bred, 
and  that  somebody  must  say  something.  Intol- 
erable drudgery,  indeed.  Now  let  us  make  the 
experiment,  whether  the  motto,  "  Swift  to  hear," 


fsfor  the  Ghiidanoe  of  Convcs 

may  not   famish   i 

regard  < 
lion  m  learners,  in  quest  of  Bometi 

which  will  furnish  u  arioUfl  Qj 

iiin- 
silv 

oil  in  time.     Bui  he  our  success  what  it 
may,  we  most,  as  Christians,  absolute 

all  vapid  words,  which  liave  in  them  no  salt  of  wit 

;i.     We  are  not  at  liberty— plainly  not — 
dkmg'B  sake — to  say  something  at  all 

W  out  words,  without  tlie  <L 

either  t<>  or  instruct.    The  warning  against 

idle  ust   he  heeded,  at  w" 

of  IV  ion.     For  He  uttered  the 

warning,  whose  lip-  are  tail  of  Grace,  and  at  our 
I  slight  even  the  least  of  His  Com- 
mandments. 

II.  We  now  turn  to  the  second  part  of  the 
Scriptur  ipt — "Let  every  man  be  slow  to 

I  in,  and  would  naturally 
follow  from,  what  went  before.  For  if  a  man  be 
simply  d  -traction,  he  will  not 

be  o  ly,  although  he  will  not  be  backward, 

to  communicate  it.     The  precept,  however,  is  of 
such  import:;  not  be  left  to  in 

We  D      1  not  to  arrive  at  it  in  the  way  of 

action:  it  is  given  us  directly  and  explicitly, 


164:     Hints  for  the  Guidance  of Conversation. 

in  a  form  which  cannot  be  evaded :  "  Let  every 
man  be  slow  to  speak."  Now,  as  one  design  of 
the  former  precept  was  to  communicate  an  inter- 
est to  conversation,  by  setting  each  party  upon  an 
inquiry,  as  to  what  knowledge  his  neighbour  might 
be  possessed  of,  so  the  main  scope  of  this  is  to  pre- 
vent one  party  from  selfishly  engrossing  all  the 
interest  of  it. 

Is  it  not  remarkable  how  minute  and  detailed 
the  Word  of  God  is  in  its  censure  of  evil,  and  how 
profound,  in  its  analysis  and  exposure  of  the  mo- 
tives from  which  evil  springs  ?  Though,  in  com- 
pliance with  its  own  principles,  its  words  are  few, 
yet  how  exploring  are  they — how  do  they  detect 
the  hidden  flaw  in  our  social  intercourse,  and  point 
to  its  origin  ! 

The  way  of  society — the  principles  upon  which 
the  intercourse  of  the  world  is  regulated — is  this : 
It  is  assumed  as  an  axiom,  that  the  greater  part 
of  mankind  have  nothing  to  contribute  to  the 
common  stock  of  knowledge,  but  that  some  fa- 
voured individuals  have  a  gift  of  entertaining 
others  by  their  Conversation,  however  little  they 
may  instruct  them.  The  individuals  thus  favoured 
soon  feel,  and  begin  to  exercise,  their  own  ]30wers. 
The  admiration,  even  of  a  small  circle,  flatters 
their  vanity,  and  they  bid  high  for  it,  by  making 
every  effort,  when   in  company,  to  be  thought 


nee  of  C  L60 

agreeable.     Nor  is  this  effort,  apart  from  the  mo- 
tive which originatei  it,  any  thing  but  oommi 
able.     1  to  entertain 

and  instead  the  society  in  which  lie  moves.    J » u t . 
then,  t!i  of  the  worldling  the 

on  rod  of  selfishness,  which  vitiates  it  at  the 
core.    He  cares  not  far  pleasing  other  .         i-tso 

tar  at  they  yield   him   the   homage  of  admirat  ion. 

utility,  and  his   volubility,  his  anecdotes, 

and   hi-  boii-mots,  are,  from   beginning  to   end,  a 

•n.     And  so  long  at  he 
le  in  the  pursuit  of  his  ob- 

3,    his    humour    i>    complaisant,    and    his    de- 
vour ati'ahle.     But  let  another  person,  equally 
.     nter  the  same  sphere,  and,  with  no  less 

•o  a  hearing,  claim  to  he  heard.    This 
will  often  dY  lew  of  all,  the  sellish- 

ness  which  before  wafl  latent.     Discontented  and 
mortified  by  having  found  a  rival  in  the  power  of 

rtaining,  the  man  retires  into  himself,     it'  he 
cannot  he  the  first  object  of  attraction,  he  d 
not  care  to  entertain  at  all. 

But.  .  the  way  of  society  is  not  God's 

way,  nor  are  the  principles  upon  which  worldly 
intercourse  is  regulated,  Scriptural  principles. 
God  teaches  that  no  man  may  put  himself  in  a 
false  position,  by  arrogating  to  himself  the  exclu- 
power  of  entertaining   and   instructing  the 


166    Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation. 

society  in  which  he  moves, — that,  as  no  man  is 
really  endued  with  all  knowledge  in  every  de- 
partment, so  it  is  hypocrisy  and  a  lie  for  any  man 
to  pretend  that  he  is,  and  to  monopolize  conversa- 
tion, as  if  he  were  : — "  Let  every  man  be  slow  to 
speak."  Scripture  prescribes  the  disposition  with 
which  a  man  should  enter  upon  conversation,  as 
one  of  candour  in  confessing  ignorance,  and  of 
readiness  to  receive  instruction  : — "  Let  every  man 
be  swift  to  hear." 

Now,  if  these  principles  were  uniformly  car- 
ried out,  how  different  a  scene  would  society  pre- 
sent from  that  which  we  so  often  witness.  The 
secret  heart-burnings  and  jealousies,  which  are 
sometimes  fomented  by  an  evening  in  company, 
would  cease,  and  Conversation,  instead  of  lapsing 
into  the  vanity  of  an  empty  display,  whose  hol- 
lowness  is  apparent  afterwards,  would  become  a 
source  of  mutual  profit  and  satisfaction  to  all  con- 
cerned in  it.         * 

"  But  may  I  not  be  brilliant  in  conversation, — 
may  I  not  shine  in  that,  which  I  know  to  be  my 
own  department  ? "  says  some  one,  who  feels  that 
he  is  gifted  that  way.  You  may,  nay,  you  must, 
exercise  every  gift  that  God  has  given  you,  but 
no  gift  may  you  exercise,  if  you  are  a  liegeman 
of  the  Cross,  and  a  follower  of  the  Nazarene, 
with  the  design  of  attracting  admiration.    "Words 


'<<•  Outdance  of  Conversat'a  I M 

I   of   entertainment    I 

Instruction    they  were  given   fear  the  glorifl 

<  ion,  but    I    now!  1   that  they  v. 

•rifioatioii  of  sel£     In  order  to  see 
more  dearly  how  serious  the  fault  is,  which 

operation  of 
ie  principle  which  leads  a  man  to  engross  i 

•i,  by  way  of  glorifying  himself,  turn*  him 
kd  Eeresiarch  in  the  higher  sphere  of  religions 
bhing.     For  what  is  an  Beresiarehl    An  Be- 
nch is  one  whoj  in  virtue  of  tris  own  peonliar 
Stitntion  of  mind,  seizes  upon  some  one  point 
in  the  ample  compass  of  Divine  Trutli.      In  the 
narrowness  of  his  mind,  lie  eoneeives  all   truth  to 
up   in   this  one  doctrine, — lie  looks 
down  upon  those  counterbalancing  doctrines,  which 
are  equally  based   upon  the    authority  of    Holy 
tpture,   and  which  present   then;  move 

forcibly  to  minds  of  another  cast.     lie  does  not 
rehend  the  catholicity  of  God's  Truth,  or  the 
that  all  men's  minds  are  but  partial  recepta- 
cles of  it— that  one  mind  is  more  vividly  impress- 
ed by  one  portion  of  it,  another  by  another.     Ac- 
lingly,  it'  endowed  with  the  gift  of  Speech,  he 
seeks  to  gain  attention  for  his  one  aspect  of  Truth, 
and  all  others  do  homage  to  it.     He  suc- 

ceeds :  and  (for  it  is  pleasant  to  be  batoned  to) 
success  l  y.      He  forms  an  entire 


168     Hints  for  the  Guidance  of  Conversation, 

theory  upon  his  one  doctrine,  magnifying  it  in 
very  undue  proportions, — and  attracts  notice,  and 
wins  followers.  Perhaps  Schism  (that  is,  separa- 
tion from  the  Church)  follows.  The  Church  hold3 
all  truth,  and  he  holds  a  part.  The  Church  flat- 
ters no  man's  vanity,  and  he  has  a  vast  stock  of 
vanity,  which  requires  to  be  flattered.  He  can 
speak,  and,  therefore,  to  speak  he  will  be  forward 
— if  not  in  the  Church,  at  least  in  the  Meeting 
House.  It  is  the  same  vanity,  and  the  same  for- 
getfulness  that  every  one  holds  a  portion  of  truth, 
which,  in  a  sphere  not  religious,  leads  a  man  to 
that  monopoly  of  conversation,  which  the  Scrip- 
ture censures. 

Finally,  a  valuable  rule  for  the  Guidance  of 
our  Conversation  is  to  be  obtained  from  a  passage 
to  which  I  have  as  yet  made  no  reference.  We 
know  the  manner  in  which  Holy  Scripture  speaks 
— we  know  how  brief  and  chastised  are  its  delin- 
eations, and  yet  how  significant — we  know,  when 
it  paints  character,  how  few  and  simple  are  the 
touches  of  the  pencil,  and  yet  how  graphic  and 
expressive — how,  through  the  whole  Yolume  (com- 
posed by  divers  human  authors,  and  at  periods  of 
time  separated  by  long  intervals),  runs  the  charac- 
teristic of  few  words,  and  deep  wisdom — little 
rhetoric,  and  much  point.  Well,  let  us  make  it  a 
model  for  the  style  of  our  Conversation.     We  are 


i  Outdance  of  Conversato    .      1 1 18 

bidden  bo  to  do.    Let  us  bo  chastised  in  our  talk. 
Let  us  strive  that,  as  far  as  may  be,  etch  wofd 
drop  may  have  some  point  in  it — some  worth  and 

Jit,  ami  solidity.    In  other,  and  better  lan- 
guage,— "IP  ANY  MAN  8PEAK,   111    HIM  SPEAK  AS 
ORACLE8   OF   GOD." 

8 


CHAPTEE  X. 

ON  RELIGIOUS   CONVERSATION. 

M  SlnU  tjjeg  taXketi  tofictljcr  of  nil  tjjcse  t&irtjjs  to|)ic!)  ftafci  Ijaji* 
penrt.  &nlr  tt  came  to  pass,  tljat,  b)f)ile  tijeg  commune*  to* 
jjcttjcr  anli  reasoned,  #esus  lumsetf  tireto  neav  anu  toent  tott^ 
tfjem." — Luke  xxiv.  14,  15. 

Our  subject  in  these  pages  has  been  Speech — 
in  its  origin — in  its  responsibility — and  in  its  ap- 
plication to  the  Worship  of  God,  and  to  the  enter- 
tainment and  edification  of  the  mind.  We  en- 
deavoured, in  our  last  Chapter,  to  give  some  prac- 
tical suggestions  for  conversation  on  topics  merely 
useful  and  interesting,  without  being  directly  relig- 
ious ;  in  this  final  essay  of  the  series,  we  shall 
endeavour  to  give  some  hints  on  the  grave  and 
important  topic  of  Spiritual  Conversation. 

I.  Now  it  is  evident,  at  the  outset,  that  of  re- 
ligious conversation  there  may  be  two  kinds.  Such 
conversation  may  turn  upon  that  which  passes 
within.  We  may  reveal  to  our  friends  our  religious 


171 

experience  (meaning  l»v 

fluctuating  OOndJ  W|r  spiritual   lit". 

us  iinpimwipi  •  by  various  tpon 

our  awls,  the  tentimenti  and  reft  bo  which 

circumstances  gi  within   us,  the    | 

which  w  \vt  Almighty  I 

had  with  Di  in  Providence  or  in  Grace,  and  so 
forth)— Or  we  may  discuss  religious  truth  whicli  is 
rnal   to  cur  own   minds,  and  of  whicli  a   \ 

field  lies  open  to  as,  inviting  that  investigation 

which  is  sometimes  best  C  Q  by  the  contact 

of  mind  with  mind. 

Thus,  assuming,  tbr  the  sake  of  an  ill; 
that  St.  Peter  was  one  of  the  disciples,  who,  on 
the  day  of  the  B  inn,  walked  to  Emm 

(as  we  know  he  was  not) — he  might  have  disCQJ 
with  his  companion  the  shame  and  remorse  whicli 

r  since  his  fall  had  himg  like  a  dark  cloud  over 
his  mind,  and  his  earnest  wish  to  make  amends  to 

Master,  now  that  it  seemed  as  if  amends  could 

Longer  be  made  ;  or  the  conversation  of  the  two 
com:  light  have  turned,  as  it  actually  did 

turn,  upon  Christ, — they  might  have  talked  to- 
gether of  the  things  which  had  happened,  taking  a 
summary  retrospect  of  that  wonderful  career,  now 
that  it  had  closed  upon  them  (as  they  thought)  for 

:,  and  refreshing  one  another's  memory  o: 
various  incidents — the  miracles  by  which  its  pr 


172  On  Religious  Conversation. 

ress  had  been  marked,  and  the  words  of  Grace, 
which,  on  various  occasions,  had  fallen  from  the 
lips  of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake. 

Let  us  take  each  of  these  kinds  of  religious  con- 
versation in  order,  and  consider  how  far  each  of 
them  is  intrinsically  proper  and  edifying. 

Speech  (  and  therefore  conversation,  which  is  a 
form  of  speech  )  is  the  index  or  expression  of  the 
thoughts  of  man.  Language  is  the  outcoming  of 
the  human  mind. 

Now  there  is  an  analogy  between  the  mind  of 
man,  in  its  operation  upon  ideas,  and  the  senses  of 
man,  in  their  operation  upon  matter. 

The  senses — sight,  hearing,  touch  and  the  rest, 
— are  so  constructed  as  to  throw  us  into  the  outer 
world.  The  senses  are  perfect,  only  when  we  for- 
get that  we  have  them,  and  throw  ourselves,  by 
the  exercise  of  them,  into  the  various  objects  which 
are  presented  to  us. 

When,  for  example,  we  gaze  upon  a  fair  land- 
scape from  some  eminence,  and  are  wholly  ab- 
sorbed in  the  beauty  of  the  plain  outstretched 
beneath  our  feet,  dotted  here  and  there  with 
cattle,  and  intersected  with  silver  streams — upon 
the  outline,  undulating  or  jagged,  of  the  purple 
hills  in  the  distance — and  upon  the  sheets  of  water 
which  lie  embosomed  in  the  woods,  the  sense  of 
sight  has  fulfilled  its  object  in  the  just  and  legiti- 


On  Religious  Conversation. 

iy,  it  has  oj»«  iturally,  aj  il 

to  operate.     "We  have  not  seen  tin  no 

sense  operates  npon  itself.     "What  we  have 

•t.     Of  e  w*  haw  Lpri  all 

thought.      ^  not  been   OOlciooa  even  of 

;  •--•  ;"  ryo.     Wo  haTebeea  engaged  with 

land.-«-:i; 

il  the  same  with  the  other  senses. 
throw  themselves,  by  their  natural   constitution, 
outward.      None  of  them  have  .any  reilex   action 

D  themselves.      And  th«'V  are  in  a  sound  St 
only  w!.<  I    that  we  possess  them.      A 

hi  of  mi;  the  ear;  it  wakens  up  a 

In  Of  .Maori  in  the  mind,  wh;  the 

DOT  l'ar  away  from  the  circumstances  whieh  at 
present  surround  him, — but  he  is  quite  uncon- 
scious of  the  inlet  by  whieh  those  associations 
entered, — he  thinks  not  of  the  ear.  A  sweet 
breath  oi'  hay  or  seav  at  him  back  again  to 

the  time  of  his  youth,  when  he  played  in  the  hay- 
iield  or  upon  the  beach, — he  !  in  for  a  time 

amid  the  scenes  of  his  childhood, — but  he  think- 
not  of  the   orpin  by  which  the   impression  i- 

I  say,  he  thinks  not  of  it.     There  is  no  reflec- 

oft/ie  mind  upon  the  operation  of  the  senses. 

And,  of  course,  there  is  no  reflex  action  of  the 

6enses  upon  themselves.     Th  not  so  con- 


174  On  Religious  Conversation. 

stituted  that  it  can  see  itself,  nor  the  ear  that  it 
can  hear  itself:  their  construction  points  to  some- 
thing in  the  outward  world — a  scene,  or  a  sound, 
which  they  are  to  apprehend. 

ISTow  you  are  to  observe,  that,  if  there  were 
any  such  reflex  action,  either  of  the  mind  upon 
the  operations  of  sense,  or  of  the  senses  upon 
themselves,  this  would  indicate  disease  in  the  or- 
gans of  sense.  If  a  man's  attention,  or  conscious- 
ness, is  divided  between  the  landscape  and  his 
eye,  it  is  because  the  eye  is  not  single,  there  is 
some  flaw  in  it.  If,  while  listening  to  a  strain  of 
music,  he  imagines  that  he  hears  it  in  a  singular 
or  unwonted  manner, — that  he  hears  the  notes 
doubled,  for  example,  or  unduly  prolonged, — this 
is  because  the  sense  of  hearing  is  out  of  order.  In 
any  healthy  exercise  of  the  organ,  he  would  not  be 
sensible  of  its  presence :  when  he  is  so  sensible, 
that  indicates  something  amiss. 

Now,  there  is  a  resemblance  between  man's 
mind  and  his  senses,  as  generally  there  is  a  cor- 
respondence between  the  outward  and  the  inward 
frame.'  The  senses  are  adapted  by  their  construc- 
tion to  the  matter  which  is  outside  of,  and  inde- 
pendent of,  themselves.  The  mind  is  adapted  by 
its  constitution  to  the  apprehension  and  contem- 
plation of  objects,  which  are  quite  independent 
of,  and  outside  of,  its  internal  mechanism.     Thus, 


On  Bdigiam  Oomt&mHiim, 
for  Qzample,  the  aftectiona  of  four,  b  tpas- 

■:,  and    love,  haw  >   certain   objects 

upon  which   tin ' v  ar- 

does  not  fear  itself,  nor  compassion  compassion 
If,  nor  love    lore    itself,  but  fear  appreh 
danger,  and  makes  us  fly;  soon    feat 

upon  el!  ad  disposes  ns  to  relieve  it;  : 

upon  BOJ  i  of  natural  affection,  and  disposes 

I  hat  object 

And,  in  the  purely  intellectual  faculties,  the 
same  feature  '  \  able.     Our  minds  are  adapt  - 

•  the  investigationand  contemplation  of  troths, 
whirh  are  independent  of  them,  a:  Le  them. 

Tliey  may  invest igate  the  laws  which  govern  the 
universe,  from  the  phenomena  which  the  univ 
presents.     They  may  throw  themselves,  through 
the  medium  of  history,  into  scenes  which  b 

■•ted  in  bygone  ages.  Finally,  they  may 
contemplate  the  Spiritual  Truths  propounded  in 
the  Bible,  and  derive  upon  them-  >m  that 

-  mutation,  a  happy  and  an  holy  influei 

But  supposing  that,  instead  of  operating  thus, 
the  feelings,  affect  ind  thoughts,  should  fall 

k  upon  themselves,  and  contemplate  their  own 
operations.  Supposing  that  in  an  hour  of  Immi- 
nent peril — when  on  the  verge  of  a  shipwreck — 
the  mind  wen  to  run,  not  upon  the  danger,  but 
upon  the  affection  of  fear — that,  instead  of  taking 


176  On  Religious  Conversation. 

all  due  precautions,  we  were  engaged  in  a  specu- 
lation upon  the  origin  and  precise  amount  of 
the  alarm  experienced  on  the  present  occasion.  Or, 
supposing  that,  when  our  path  was  crossed  by  an 
object  of  distress,  we  paused,  to  analyze  the  feeling 
of  compassion,  as  to  how  far  it  might  be  genuine 
on  the  present  occasion,  or  how  far  other  motives 
might  dispose  us  to  relieve  this  case.  Or,  suppos- 
ing that  we  always  'had  in  our  minds  the  affection 
felt  by  us  for  some  member  of  our  family,  and,  as 
having  it  much  upon  our  minds,  were  constantly 
to  be  bringing  it  forward  in  conversation,  and 
exposing  it  to  others.  Or,  supposing,  finally,  that 
in  a  piece  of  historical  research,  a  man  were  to 
please  himself,  not  with  a  picture  of  ancient  man- 
ners, elicited  by  a  careful  study  of  ancient  monu- 
ments, and  the  patching  together  of  notices,  found 
in  sundry  dry  old  chronicles,  but  with  the  thought 
of  his  own  acumen  in  shedding  this  light  upon  an 
obscure  period, — what  should  we  infer  from  all 
this,  as  to  the  soundness  or  unsoundness  of  the 
mental  and  moral  powers  %  "We  should  say  at 
once  that  they  were  morbid,  and  their  action  un- 
healthy. As  the  eye  is  conscious  of  the  landscape, 
not  of  its  own  visual  power,  the  ear  conscious  of 
the  music,  not  of  its  own  structure, — so  the  mind 
ought  to  be  conscious  only  of  the  external  objects 
upon  which  it  fastens,  and  when  it  turns  back 


On  Bdigiamtf  Qm*0Wtion*  r, , 

again  upon  itself,  thifl  is  I  proof  of  B 

inherent  in  it. 

Now,  poaaibly,  it'  th  lias  followed  me 

thus  far,  his  mind   will  jump  prematurely  to 

which  sivms  to  present  an  i 

to  what  hi 

Von  will  naturally  ask, — is,  then,  all  reflection 

of  the  mind  upon  its  own  pnx  i  be  discour- 

aged?    Is  not  self-examination  a  duty  pn 

in  HmIv  Scripture  1     And  what  is  self-examination, 
luit  |  rellectiou  oi'the  mind  upon  it-  own  pr 

d  to  suggest  that  we  should  ool  o 

itljbe  looking  into  our  own  hearts  and  char- 
acters, and  endeavouring  to  act  upon  the  maxim, 
Bftid  ot'old  to  have  come  down  from  heaven,  yvwOi 
aeavrov ? 

Self-Examination,  in  the  p resent  circumstances 
of  our  nature,  is,  no  doubt,  a  most  important  and 
arduous  duty.  But  it  is  no  less  true,  that  Self- 
Examination  has  reference  to  a  llaw  in  our  nature, 
and  in  a  perfect  condition  of  the  mental  and  moral 
powers  would  not  exist.  The  object  of  Self-Ex- 
animation  is  to  ascertain  how  far  our  hearts  are 
right  with  GkxL  But  supposing  (which,  sinoe  the 
Fall  m  a  purely  imaginary  case)  that  our  hearts 
were  never  wrong  with  (iod — that  the  DQ 
needle  of  the  Will  always  turned  steadily,  and 
without  oscillation,  in  the  direction  of  God — could 
8* 


178  On  Religious  Conversation. 

there  be  then  any  place  for  Self-Examination? 
Surely  none.  Self-Examination  was  unknown  in 
Paradise.  Our  first  parents,  before  the  Fall,  were 
innocents  in  the  strictest  sense  of  that  term,  throw- 
ing themselves,  with  keenest  enjoyment,  into  all 
the  objects  of  delight  which  surrounded  them  in 
the  pure  and  happy  garden ;  but  never  analyzing 
their  own  sensations,  or  reflecting  upon  the  instru- 
mentality by  which  they  were  produced.  We  may 
conceive  them  to  have  been  essentially  unreflect- 
ing (in  the  limited  sense  of  the  word  reflection) — 
absorbed,  indeed,  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
Divine  Goodness,  and  in  the  appreciation  of  those 
blessings  with  which  He  had  crowned  their  cup, — 
but  self  in  no  shape  entering  into  their  thoughts. 
But,  by  the  Fall,  a  great  flaw  entered  both  into 
the  physical  and  moral  nature  of  man.  Thence- 
forth it  became  necessary  for  the  physician  to  ex- ' 
amine  the  structure  of  the  organs  of  sense,  and  to 
acquaint  himself,  as  far  as  possible,  with  the  theory 
of  sensation,  in  order  that  he  might  minister  to  the 
relief  of  the  organs  of  sense,  when  deranged.  And, 
thenceforth,  it  became  necessary  to  exercise  Self- 
Examination, — that  man  should  analyze  his  own 
motives,  should  investigate  his  own  feelings,  and 
try  by  the  revealed  rule  of  right,  his  conduct  and 
his  character.  All  this  was  made  necessary  by 
superinduced  evil — it  was  not  necessary  originally. 


On  Bdigicm  OonuMmtiion*  179 

l  now  we  turn  rafficientfy  examined  the 

roots  of  the  subject,  to  see  our  w  answer 

used  at  the  outset  of  the  Oha] 

I    the  answer  I  give  is  this, — The  revelation 
of  our  own  inward  experience  to  otfo 
talking  of  our  own   frames  and  feelings,  Of 
personal  dealings  which  God  may  have  had  with 

is  onlj  desirable,  BO  far  forth  -tributes 

to  t!.  end  of  Self-Examination,     It"  ii  tends 

'.ve  us  seli-knowledev— to  derelope  more  fully 
in  our  consciousness  our  own  nn worthiness  and 
God's  great  Love — then  doubtless  it  is  desirah 

By  the  help  of  this  principle,  we  must  make 
out  when  conversation  of  this  kind  won  Id  be  an 
advantage,  and  when  it  would  not  The  object 
of  Self-Examination  is  the  gaining  a  deeper  sense 
of  our  own  sinfulness.  And  the  object  of  gaining 
this  deeper  sense  is  that  we  may  recur  with  a 
Stronger  faith  and  more  entire  simplicity  to  Chi 
If  then  this  deeper  sense  of  sinfulness  can  be  for- 
warded or  fostered  by  the  disclosure  either  to  an 
intimate  friend,  or  to  a  clergyman  (yes,  to  a  clergy- 
men,— we  are  not  afraid  of  truth,  because  the 
irch  abuses  and  caricature-  it)  of  our 
own    inward  retigkra  ■  "  shall  do  well  and 

wisely  to  make  that  disclosure,  and  to  solicit  the 
prayers  for  us  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  made. 
The  doing  so  would  only  be  acting  in  accordance 


180  On  Religious  Conversation. 

with  the  inspired  principle — "  Confess  your  sins 
one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another,  that  ye 
may  be  healed.  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a 
righteous  man  avail eth  much."  I  feel,  however, 
that  it  behoves  us  at  all  times  to  be  jealously  watch- 
ful over  our  own  minds,  while  making  such  commu- 
nications. We  may  suffer  real  spiritual  mischief  by 
a  too  free  or  too  general  disclosure  of  feelings, 
which,  as  turning  upon  our  own  personal  relation 
to  God,  are  invested  with  a  peculiar  sacredness. 
It  will  be  well  for  me  briefly  to  point  out  how  this 
mischief  may  arise. 

Who,  that  knows  himself,  knows  not  the  sub- 
tlety of  pride  ?  Who  knows  not  that  pride  takes 
its  occasion  from  our  religious  actions,  from  our 
religious  feelings,  and  is  the  cankerworm  at  the 
root  of  them,  that  blights  and  makes  them  rotten  ? 
We  cannot  express  ourselves  humbly,  we  cannot 
confess  our  sins  heartily,  but  pride,  like  a  malig- 
nant fluid,  secreted  from  the  heart,  poisons  our 
humility  and  our  confession.  Now  it  is  evident 
that  pride  may  feel  a  great  deal  of  complacency, 
when  we  speak  out  to  another  the  most  secret  and 
sacred  feelings  of  our  own  breast.  The  reflection 
will  perforce  suggest  itself,  do  what  we  may  to 
keep  it  down, — "  Is  not  this  act  of  self-abasement 
a  proof  of  my  real  goodness  ?  Could  a  man  have 
the  feelings  which  I  disclose,  and  which  by  the 


On  Religious  Conversat^  I  si 

disclosure  1  unfold  is  my  own  oonaoioneneaa,  with- 

out  baying  really  some  mo— OBO  of  saintliness? 
Will  u. »t  the  person  to  whom  J  disclose  them 
thin'  of  me,  instead  of  worse,  fat 

re  \ " 
I  by  ;ii8  say  that  the  occasion  which  the 

talking  of  Religions  Experience  gives  to  feelings 
of  this  character  ought  to  he  a  bar  to  it  altogether. 

There   is  no  religion  e  in   the  world,  from 

which  pride  may  not  and  does  not  take  its  occa- 
sion. If  it  i.-  rather  more  aj>t  to  do  SO  from  this 
kind  of  conversation  than  from  any  Other  duty,  it 
is  because  it  i>  the  metl  personal  of  all  duties,  the 
BMMt  hound  up  and  identified  with  self.  This 
consideration  should  make  us,  not  backward  in 
di-elosing  our  feelings  when  the  doing  BO  may  he 

tided  with  advantage, — but  only  guarded  and 
watchful  over  our  own  minds,  while  making  the 
re. 

Guardedness  in  exposing  our  feelings  should 
arise  from  the  consideration,  that  by  thus  diffusing 
them  we  evaporate  their  strength.  This  is  a  law 
of  the  ct.i^titution  of  our  nature,  the  operation  of 
which  is  inevitable.  The  sentiments  of  the  heart, 
especially  those  of  the  most  personal  and  sacred 
character,  resemble  fragrant  odour.:.  If  you  break 
the  box  of  ointment,  the  fragrance  must  be  m 
or  L<  1  in  the  air.     The  concentration 


182  On  Religious  Conversation. 

of  a  religious  feeling  in  the  deep  cell  of  the  heart 
is  its  strength — its  diffusion  sometimes  proves  its 
weakness.  There  is  one  direction,  however,  and 
one  only,  in  which  it  may  be  diffused  without 
perilling  its  strength.  The  exposure  of  the  heart's 
sentiments  to  Christ  in  confession  of  guilt,  and 
acknowledgment  of  His  mercies — in  application 
for  His  sympathy  and  aid — this,  as  bringing  us 
into  contact  with  the  One  Source  of  light  and 
strength,  cannot  but  confirm  and  intensify  them. 
From  Him  we  can  conceal  nothing ;  and  it  is  our 
highest  wisdom  and  privilege  to  pour  out  the 
heart  before  Him.  Mary  broke  her  alabaster  box 
of  ointment  upon  His  feet,  and  that  offering  He 
endued  by  His  Word  with  an  undying  fragrance. 
"Yerily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  wheresoever  this 
Gospel  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world,  there 
shall  also  this,  that  this  woman  hath  done,  be  told 
for  a  memorial  of  her." 

Let  the  odour  of  our  affections  go  forth  towards 
Christ;  and  they  shall  preserve  their  fragrance 
fresh  and  enduring. 

The  third  and  last  consideration,  which  I  shall 
adduce  against  an  undue  divulging  of  our  religious 
feelings  to  others  is,  that  this  practice,  however 
sometimes  necessary  and  desirable,  cannot  but 
counteract  a  secret,  true,  and  natural  instinct 
within  us.     There  is  a  remarkable  analogy  be- 


On  Religion*  Conversation.  1 88 

en  tin-  way  in  which  we  regard  our  phytic*] 
frame,  and  that  in  which  we  regard  oar  m 

the  Fall,  which  brought  En  ■ 

isnessof  imperfetion,  man  lias  shrunk  ! 

3  -nakedness  d  aeoompanied  with 

me.    The  first  effect  of  man's  sin  was  t«>  make 

him  hide  himself  among  the  trees  of  the  garden, 

an<l  deprecate  exposure,— and  the  Lord  conde- 

ded  tothis  Instmet,  and  recognised  its  natural- 

the  circumstances,  when  "for  Adam 

and  his  wife  Be  made  garments  of  skin  and  clothed 

them."    And  thus  it  is  with  our  moral  frame* 

too.     "We  feel   an  instinctive  reluctance  to 

it,  to  lay  bare  the  privacy  of  our  heart's  recesses 

before  another.     The  heart,   it    is  said,  and  there 

periods  when   all,  however   surrounded  with 

intra  1  kind  friends,  must  realize  it — "the 

heart  knoweth  his  own  bitterness,  and  a  stranger 

doth    not    intermeddle    with    his   joy."      Joseph 

screens  the  intensity  of  his  affections  from  human 

. — not  merely  because  the  public  indulgence  of 

o  might  have  led  to  premature  discovery,  but 

from  de'  -reasons  connected  with  the 

constitution  of  his  nature.  u  Bis  bowels,"  it  is  said, 

"  did  yearn  upon  his  brother :  and  he  Bought  where 

;  and  he  entered  into  his  chamber,  and 

re." 


184  On  Religious  Conversation. 

"  He  could  not  trust  his  melting  soul, 
But  in  his  Maker's  sight ; 
Then  why  should  gentle  hearts  and  true, 
Bare  to  the  rude  world's  withering  view, 
Their  treasure  of  delight  ?  " 

If,  then,  the  instinct  of  reserve  be  a  true  and  natural 
one,  we  should  not  violate  it  without  just  reasons 
moving  us  thereunto,  and  due  limitations.  Nature 
itself  would  teach  us  to  select  the  confidant  from 
the  number  of  the  most  intimate,  or  of  those  who 
have  most  conciliated,  and  have  the  justest  claims 
upon,  our  esteem. 

But  are  there  no  religious  topics,  save  those 
which  are  of  a  personal  character,  and  which  turn 
upon  our  own  inner  and  spiritual  life  ?  Surely,  as 
the  whole  realm  of  Nature  lies  open  before  the  eye 
of  the  body,  wherein  the  Philosopher  may  explore 
minutely,  and  discover  by  such  investigation  ever 
fresh  wonders — wherein  the  simple  lover  of  nature 
may  find  ever  some  new  feature  of  beauty  to  dwell 
upon,  with  awe  and  rapture, — so  there  is,  without 
the  human  mind,  a  spiritual  world,  which  will 
appear,  upon  research,  inexhaustible,  will  open  up 
fresh  wonders  at  every  turn,  and  present  fresh  feat- 
ures of  moral  grace  and  wisdom,  as  the  believer 
contemplates  it  with  more  of  simplicity  and  devo- 
tion. The  Word  of  God,  the  Truths  of  God- 
elementary  or  advanced — this  is  the  sublime  realm 


On  fi  Vffkm  t  bfi  in  ratio*  185 

which  the  human  mind  is  permitted  and  in 
low,  and  wl.'  toae  are  awaiv  who  I 

le   trial   oi'  it,  will  amply    repay  investigation. 

mind  with  mind, 
has  ;  icy  to  shed  peculiar  light  upon  this  in- 

on. 
We  seldom  ■  difficulty,  without   at 

least  opening  a  wav  towards  the  solution  of  it.     All 
minds  run  in  a  track  of  their  own,  and  sometimes, 
if  we  pursue  our  own  speculations  too  far,  brie- 
fly of  the  views  taken  bv  others,  the  track 
•ines  a  rut,  and  thought  is   be-  i   entan- 

glement and  perplexity.  The  mode  of  obviating 
this  mischici  is  by  the  interchange  of  friendly  con- 
ation on  the  thoughts  arising  out  of  God's 
Truth.  If  such  conversation  be  conducted  in  a  right 
spirit)  it  will  be  surely  blessed  by  God,  to  gre 

-  on  our  part.  The  two  disciples  had 
not  long  communed  together,  and  reasoned  upon 
their  common  perplexities,  before  light  sprungup 
to  tl.  i  the  Expositor  was  at  hand.     kkd« 

Himself  drew   near,  and  went   with   them;    and 
beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  lb 
::ded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  tl 
concerning  Himself."      Yes,   mark   the   words — 
icerning  Himself."     What  other 
noiiy  had  Moses  and  the  Prophets  to  h 
but  such  as  had  reference,  either  directly  or  indi- 


186  On  Religious  Conversation. 

rectly,  to  the  Lord  Jesus — to  His  Advents,  His 
Divine  Person,  His  Humanity,  His  offices  of  Grace, 
His  work  of  Love  and  Pity  ?  With  what  other' 
testimony  is  the  whole  of  Scripture  charged,  but 
that  of  Christ,  Christ,  Christ  ?  Christ,  in  the  typ- 
ical Histories  of  the  Old  Testament.  Christ,  in 
the  typical  Ceremonies  of  the  Mosaic  Law.  Christ, 
in  the  Psalms,  as  the  source  of  the  Christian's  con- 
solation, and  the  key  to  unlock  all  the  affections 
of  his  heart.  Christ,  in  the  Prophecies,  as  Cap- 
tain of  the  great  triumph  over  evil — predicted 
with  greater  clearness  as  time  wears  on.  Christ, 
in  the  Gospels,  as  the  Healer  and  Benefactor  of 
the  race.  Christ,  in  the  Epistles,  as  the  Wisdom 
of  God.  Christ,  in  the  Kevelation,  as  the  Coming 
One,  whose  Advent  is  ever  imminent,  the  pole- 
star  of  Hope,  upon  which  the  Christian's  eye  is 
ever  fixed.  Eeader,  the  Scriptures  are,  indeed, 
full  of  Christ,  and  we  have  His  own  testimony 
that  we  shall  read  them  amiss,  and  discuss  them 
amiss,  unless  our  study  and  our  discussion  lead  us 
to  find  Him  in  them.  To  commune  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, if  we  commune  aright,  will  be  to  commune 
of  the  Lord.  As  in  the  realm  of  nature,  one  form 
— that  of  the  tree,  with  its  branching  arms — con- 
tinually presents  itself  to  the  eye — so,  in  Scripture, 
the  Cross  of  Christ  ever  presents  itself  to  the  mind. 
Let  us  expect,  and  seek,  and  pray  to  discern  it 


187 

tlur  rersation,  as 

ing  and  meditation,  on  the  Word 
of  God,  until  thi  Bids  out 

on  every  page.     AVith  how  large  a  blessing  may 
such  n  reasonably  look  to  be  fraught  I 

:  in  perplexity,  it  shall  end  in  el< 
ness.    It  with  the  presence  of  two  or 

6 — it  shall  end  With  the  spiritual   presence  of 

a  IV         ■■  whose  form  is  like  that  of  the  Bon 

God."      He  shall  join  us  M  we  commune  together 
and  reason,  and  <;  :  he  cloud  from  our  minds, 

and  iinally  open  our  eyes,  that  we  should  know 

Him. 

We  have  now  brought  the  subject,  which  has 
occupied  our  attention  through  £3  jea,  to  a 

close.    Aa  regards  that  part  of  it  which  has  been 
treated  in  this  Chapter,  it  is  rather  the  necessity 

completing  our  topic,  which  has  led  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  it,  than  the  feeling  that  the  evil  specially 
urcd  in  it  is  popular  or  prevalent.     The  last 
fault  to  which  the  many  are  likely  to  be  tempted, 
tfl  that  of  lading  hare  too  freely  to  the  eye  of  their 
friends  the  recesses  of  their  own  inner  life.     Rath- 
er surely  the  ordinary  temptation  is  the  far  more 
:ie — to  discard  from  conversation  all 
M  being  grave  and  serious,  and 
an  undue  check  upon  merriment — and  "to  sp 
often  one  to  another  "not  on  spiritual  concerns, 


188  On  Religious  Conversation. 

but  upon  topics  unedifying,  frivolous  at  best,  and 
possibly  sinful  or  profane. 

I  trust  that  in  the  preceding  pages  the  sin  of 
Idle  Words  has  been  faithfully  represented  in  its 
true  colours ;  and  that  some  reader  of  this  little 
Book  may  have  received  a  warning  against  con- 
tinuance in  that  sin,  which  may  resound  in  his 
conscience  for  some  little  time. 

It  is  a  great  thing  (nay,  it  is  the  first  step 
towards  right  conduct)  to  be  impressed  with  the 
responsibility,  which  the  faculty  of  Speech  entails 
upon  us.  Jesus,  when  He  restored  that  faculty 
to  a  dumb  man,  sighed,  and  said  "  Ephphatha." 
Why  did  he  sigh  ?  Was  that  sigh  an  indication 
that  the  Lord  was  about  to  confer  an  awful  power, 
a  power  which  might  be  awfully  abused,  as  it 
might  also  be  made  the  medium  of  infinite  good  ? 
Was  it  equivalent  to  saying,  "  Son  of  man,  hith- 
erto shut  out  from  the  power  of  sinning  with  the 
lips,  upon  the  brink  of  what  an  awful  responsi- 
bility art  thou  standing !  This  giving  thee  an 
articulate  tongue,  to  use  or  abuse,  is  almost  like 
endowing  thee  with  a  soul,  which,  while  it  has  a 
capacity  of  heavenly  bliss,  is  also  susceptible  of 
being  degraded  to  the  lowest  hell." 

Was  this  the  Saviour's  mind  when  He  sighed  ? 
It  may  be  so;  for  indeed  the  tongue,  being  the 
faculty  by  which  Reason  is  exercised,  is  so  closely 


On  fij  ligiom  ( km  tx  Nafta  l  N 

allied  with  the   Be*  I  to  give  articulate 

speech  is  akin  to  endowing  with  Rea 

And  80,  in  view  of  this  intimate  association,  it 

ritteo — 

•'  Death    and    lii  itnal    death    an<l    life) 

"are  in  the  DOW0T  of  the  tongue/1     Wlm 

rtli  liis  month  and  Ids  tongue,  keepeth  his  boh] 

from  troubles." 

And  by  a  greater  than  Solomon  it  was  said — 
"By   thy    WOBDfl    THOU    siialt  be  justii 

BT  THY  WOED>  !  ALT  BE  CONDEMNED." 

1  :inn«»t  close  this  Chapter  without  bringing 
to  the  reader's  memory  a  well-known-] >assage  of 
Cowper, — one  of  the  beau  English  literature, 

— which  sums  up  the  argument  of  the  preceding 
Chapter : — 

"  It  happened  on  a  solemn  eventide, 
Soon  after  He  that  was  our  Surety  died, 
Two  bosom  friends,  each  pensively  inclined, 
The  scene  of  all  those  sorrows  left  behind, 
Sought  their  own  village,  busied  as  they  went, 
In  musings  worthy  of  the  great  event : 
They  spake  of  Him  they  loved,  of  Him  whose  life, 
Though  blameless,  had  incurr'd  perpetual  strife, 
Whose  deeds  had  left,  in  spite  of  hostile  arts, 
A  deep  memorial  graven  on  their  hearts. 
The  recollection,  like  a  vein  of  ore, 
The  farther  traced,  enrieh'd  them  still  the  more : 
They  thought  Him,  and  they  justly  thought  Him,  One, 
Sent  to  do  mor>  pear'd  to  have  done ; 


190  On  Religious  Conversation. 

To  exalt  a  people,  and  to  place  them  high 
Above  all  else,  and  wonder'd  He  should  die. 
Ere  yet  they  brought  their  journey  to  an  end, 
A  stranger  join'd  them  courteous  as  a  friend, 
And  ask'd  them,  with  a  kind  engaging  air, 
What  their  affliction  was,  aj*d  begg'd  a  share. 
Inform'd,  He  gather'd  up  the  broken  thread, 
And,  truth  and  wisdom  gracing  all  He  said, 
Explain'd,  illustrated,  and  search'd  so  well 
The  tender  theme  on  which  they  chose  to  dwell, 
That,  reaching  home,  '  The  night,'  they  said,  '  is  near. 
'We  must  not  now  be  parted,  sojourn  here.' — 
The  new  Acquaintance  soon  became  a  guest, 
And  made  so  welcome  at  their  simple  feast, 
He  bless'd  the  bread,  but  vanish'd  at  the  word, 
And  left  them  both  exclaiming,  '  Twas  the  Lord  ! 
•  Did  not  our  hearts  feel  all  He  deign'd  to  say  ? 
4  Did  they  not  burn  within  us  by  the  way  ? ' 

Now  theirs  was  converse,  such  as  it  behoves 
Man  to  maintain,  and  such  as  God  approves : 
Their  views  indeed  were  indistinct  and  dim, 
But  yet  successful,  being  aim'd  at  Him ; 
Christ  and  His  character  their  only  scope, 
Their  object,  and  their  subject,  and  their  hope." 


m. 


Cl     TIJJT 


[VERSITTi 


APPENDIX. 


I  subjoin,  as  an  Appendix,  a  Sermon,  which 
embraces  two  points  respecting  the  Government  of 
the  Tongue  omitted  in  the  Essays.  The  Reader 
will  pardon  the  re-appearance,  in  a  homely  dress, 
of  two  or  three  ideas,  which  have  been  already 
introduced  into  the  body  of  the  Work. 


APPENDIX. 


A  SERMON  ON  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF 
THE  ToXGUE. 

PREACHED   I.\  [OOL   OKA? 


James  ii.  '2 — 1. 


•  in  many  thing*  we  offend  all.  If  any  man  offend  not  in 
word,  the  fame  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  oho  (<>  brUU  t/ie  whole 
body.     B<1  I  bits  in  the  horses'  mouths,  that  they  may 

obey  us;  and  ice  turn  aboui  their  whole  body.     Behold  also  the 
shijts,  which  though  Oiey  be  so  great,  a  f  fierce 

'.>■,  yet  are  they  turned  about  with  a  vtry  small  faUn,  whither- 
soever the  governor  Ih 

Tin:  Apostle  is  speaking,  in  tl  f  the 

eminent  of  the  Tongue. 

An<  -  of  the  Government  of  the  Tongne 

[net  things,  which  are  not  to  be  confonm 
r, — both  strong  thi  ly,  bat  the  lal 

stronger  than  the  former. 

at  the  degree  in  which  a  man 
governs  his  tongue  is  aiumlcx  of  his  whole  m 
9 


194  Sermon  at  Rugby , 

state.  An  index.  The  hands  of  a  watch,  or  the 
projection  on  a  sundial,  are  an  index,  by  which  yon 
may  ascertain  the  progress  of  Time,  or  in  other 
words,  how  much  of  his  course  in  the  heavens  the 
Sun  has  accomplished.  The  Sun  (or  rather  the 
Earth  in  its  diurnal  revolution)  travels  silently  and 
without  noise.  In  order  to  be  advertised  at  any 
moment  of  the  Sun's  exact  stage  of  progress,  we 
create  an  artificial  index — the  watch,  or  the  dial, 
— which  reports  that  progress  with  accuracy.  Sim- 
ilarly, our  moral  life,  though  always  moving  either 
forward  or  backward  (for,  my  brethren,  it  is  a 
solemn  truth  that  there  is  no  standing  still  in  moral 
life ),  yet  moves  slowly  and  imperceptibly ;  as  we 
cannot  see  the  Sun  moving  (although  after  it  has 
moved,  we  note  that  it  is  in  a  different  quarter  of 
the  heavens),  so  we  cannot  see  ourselves  growing 
better  or  worse  (although,  after  a  lapse  of  time, 
we  may  take  notice  that  we  are  more  or  less  good 
than  we  were  a  year  or  six  months  ago).  It  is 
desirable,  therefore,  to  have  an  exact  index,  by 
recurring  to  which,  we  may  ascertain  our  moral 
progress.  And  this  index,  the  Apostle  says,  is  the 
Tongue.  That  is  the  thought  of  verse  2.  Keep 
it  distinct  in  your  minds. 

But  something  more  than  this, — a  further,  and 
stronger  statement, — is  yet  behind. 

The  Government  or  non-government  of  the 


'he  Government  of  the 
Ton;  ot  only  an  index,  [tiaalsoadetennin- 

r  the  iinag« 

Lit  and  a  radder.     Now  what  ua  a  bit  :—  an 
rhich  d<  b 

Wilicfa  makes  him  turn  t«>  the  right  or  t<> 
whi<    .  i  hi>  month,  leaves  him  I 

and  iction,  and,  it'  drawn  tight,  ai 

^ress.     Just  so  a  rudder  with  a  ship  ; — it  ifl 
guiding  instrument  of  the  vessel's  course.    With 
you   may  turn  the  ship  at   a  moment's 
notice  as  you  please,  but  the  guidance  of  a  vessel 
which   fa  her  rudder,  by  the  sails,   ifl  at    all 

times  a  very  difficult   and  dangerous  matter.- 
lib  |  in  any  but  the  most  expert  hands. 

w  this  image,  you  ol 
Upon  th-  The  hands  of  the  watch,  and  the 

index   of  the   dial,    do    not    I 
course,  nor  have  they  the  slightest  influence  upon 
it.     The  J  mark   and  its  progress;  but 

they  in  no  v  its  course,  as  the  helm  hiases 

the  course  of  the  ship,  and  the  bit  Liases  the  COB 
of  the  ho 

Now,  then,  I  will  say  a  word  on  these  two 
at   topics — the   Tongue   as   the  index  of  our 
moral  c  d  the  Tongue  afl  the  governing 

•  rument  of  our  m 

To  those  of  you  who  are  striving  to  be  holy, 
and  to  imitate  the  e  of  Our  Saviour,  do  I 


196  Sermon  at  Rugby, 

now  address  myself.  And  I  pray  that  what  I  say 
may  be  made,  by  God,  the  means  of  helping  you 
in  that  pursuit. 

First,  the  Tongue  as  an  index.  "  If  any  man 
offend  not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and 
able  also  to  bridle  the  whole  body."  Only  one 
perfect  Man  ever  existed ;  and  of  Him — in  perfect 
accordance  with  the  principle  here  laid  down  by 
the  Apostle — it  is  written,  not  only  that  He  did 
no  sin,  but  also  that  "  no  guile  was  found  in  His 
mouth,"  that  "  when  He  was  reviled,  He  reviled 
not  again ;  when  He  suffered,  He  threatened 
not," — and,  in  another  place,  that  "  full  of  grace 
were  His  lips."  The  words  of  the  text  are  not  to 
be  taken  as  implying  that  any  man  (except  Him) 
is,  in  the  judgment  of  God,  perfect,  but  simply  as 
asserting  that  the  more  closely  any  one  approxi- 
mates to  perfection,  the  more  vigilantly  will  he 
be  found  to  govern  his  tongue,  so  that  his  per- 
formance of  this  duty  supplies  an  accurate  touch- 
stone of  his  advance  in  holiness. 

And  this  will  become  quite  obvious  if  we  re- 
flect, first,  that  to  govern  the  tongue  is  a  task  so 
difficult,  that  he  who  has  grace  to  accomplish  it, 
has  grace  to  accomplish  any  thing.  The  exceed- 
ing great  difficulty  of  governing  the  tongue  con- 
sists principally  in  the  great  scope  there  is  for 
going  wrong.     Other  temptations  only  have  scope 


L07 

for  the:'  ;illy.      When   B    man 

a  health  and  spirits,  friends  all  around  him, 
and  affluence  and  proeperitj 
no  tempi  •  murmur.    When  he  is  poor, and 

obliged  to  toil  hard  for  a  day's  liwli; 

Bcope  for  self-indulgence.     It'  he  lives  a 
life,  and  oomea  into  little  or  ao  oolli- 
. .  of  course  his  temper  and  cour- 
tesy tried.     If  he  is  obliged  to  be  busy 
■k  which  demands  close  attention 

mind,  t!  :iue  by  which  an  unclean 

thought  can  insinuate  itself     Hut  because  I 

there  is  always  ample  ough  for 

.e  tongue,    In  on]  Ikative 

the  words  which  k  from  morning  to  night, 

if  written    down,    would    almost   nil    a   voli: 

is  continually  passing  from  as  byathou- 

aues  of  occasion, — we  want  something,  or 
[re  information,  ot  ha  intelligence  to 

imunicate,  or  wish  to  please,  or  must  do  BOO 
thing  to  while  away  time,  or  to  vent  our  feel;: 
of  irritation   and   peevishness.      Kven    the   reason- 
able and  necessary  occasions  of  speech — the  occa- 

-,   on   which  without  speech  the 
soci<  ry,  very 

numero 

So  that  the  reason  why  t :.  mnent  of  the 


198  Sermon  at  Rugby, 

Tongue  is  more  arduous  than  any  other  duty,  is 
the  reason  why  it  is  more  difficult  for  a  military 
commander  to  maintain  a  town  which  has  a  thou- 
sand outlets,  than  one  which  is  only  accessible  at 
two  or  three  points.  In  the  latter  case  the  garrison 
may  be  concentrated  at  the  two  or  three  vulner- 
able points.  In  the  former,  they  must  be  dispersed 
in  weak  handfuls  at  the  various  outlets.  Of  course 
we  gather  with  certainty  that,  if  the  force  suffices 
to  maintain  the  city  with  many  approaches,  it  will 
suffice  to  maintain  the  city  with  few.  And  the 
Word  of  God  (all  whose  reasonings  are,  if  I  may 
say  so,  the  reasonings  of  Inspired  Common  Sense) 
infers  upon  the  same  principle  that  he  who  can 
stand  against  sin  succesfully,  where  the  avenues  of 
temptation  are  numerous,  can  stand  also  where 
they  are  few.  "  If  any  man  offend  not  in  word, 
the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  also  to  bridle 
the  whole  body." 

But  now  for  a  second  reason  why  the  tongue 
should  be  an  accurate  index  of  the  moral  state. 
Offences  of  the  tongue  are  thought  so  little  of  by 
mankind  in  general,  that  he  who  is  strict  with  him- 
self here  will  be  strict  with  himself,  we  may  be  sure, 
in  all  departments  of  duty.  If  he  thinks  gravely 
of  wrong  words,  he  cannot  think  lightly  of  wrong 
actions.  You  know  how  very  little  importance  men 
generally  attach  to  sins  of  the  tongue — how  strange- 


h  their  jud  point  is  contrasted  with 

that  of  Mini  Who  laid,-   M  I.>  word  which 

.  shall  B]  t'  in 

the  day  of  judgment."     1  onr 

mil.  thus — "  A  hasty  word,  vented  in  a 

i  slight  misrej 
ke,  an  impnre  innendo,— why  it  is  all 
:i, — nothing  serioiis  is  intended  bj 

and  a  man  may  1  good  man,  who  indu! 

Doh  word  tonally!"    Bnoh  is  the  p» 

notion.       It    is     radically   erroneous.      It    IS 

Word.     It   is  probably 

glanced   at    in    the    third  Commandment,   whi 

thfi  taking  His  Name  in  vain,  aSU) 

which  could  not  find  plao  I  in  the 

of  the  tongue,  the  Divine  Legislator  solemnly  adds 
— "  The  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless"  (ob, 
iict  of  the  world,  how  wilt  thou  shrivel  ap  into 
•  when  God  reveal-  Bis  Jndg 
the  '  I) — "The  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guilt- 

Name  in  vain."    But  however 
such  .  that  men  do  I  vy  light 

:-y  much  lighter  than 
they  do  of  i  lations   of  duty.     Now,  if  a 

•aid  be  found,  who,  in   hi 
a  very  •  I  bis  subj<  and 

all  that  it  comes  .  which  would 


200  Sermon  at  Rugby , 

not  tend  either  to  some  good  end  or  to  innocent 
amusement, — it  is  impossible,  is  it  not,  that  that 
man  should  be  a  careless  liver  ?  The  care  of  his 
words  is  the  index  of  a  general  care  over  what 
men  reckon  more  important  than  words, — actions, 
and  feelings. 

Then  the  point  seems  to  be  proved  by  reason, 
as  well  as  asserted  in  Scripture,  that  an  accurate 
index  of  a  man's  entire  moral  condition  is  sup- 
plied by  the  Government  of  his  Tongue.  Weigh 
it  well.  Just  as  you  resort  to  the  sundial  or  the 
watch  for  the  reckoning  of  time,  so  in  your  spirit- 
ual reckoning,  in  your  acts  of  Self-Examination, 
you  may  consult  the  index  of  the  tongue,  with  the 
assurance  that  it  will  give  no  untrue  verdict.  To  per- 
sons disposed  to  engage  seriously  in  that  arduous 
work,  and  yet  beset  (as  we  all  are  here)  with  mani- 
fold business, — this  thought  may  really  be  a  mate- 
rial assistance.  You  wish  to  examine  your  whole 
moral  character  and  life  %  Examine  the  words  of 
the  past  day, — they  may  be  a  sufficient  criterion. 
Have  you  been  watchful  over  them,  or  have  you 
let  them  slip,  without  reflection,  from  your  mouth  ? 
Have  you  governed  them — that  is,  inspected  them 
before  utterance,  rejected  one,  approved  another, 
chastised  a  third,  and  so  on  ?  or,  have  you  thrown 
the  reins  of  self-discipline  down,  and  let  them  take 
their  course  ? 


ire,  from  I 
this  will   1k>  a   fame  ind<  :!  will  li- 

nn inaccurate  \  this 

alarming  thought  t<>  many  of  you  1     Ob 
it  not  at  once  to  awa]  our 

with  trumpet  call  I     For  1 1 1 * 
many  of  you  who,  so  long  gob  yen  do  oof  go  wrong 
in  yonr  liv<   .  i  concern  ;tt  all 

[g.    They  may  be  ir<><>d  this  hour, 
and  had  t he  next,  bo  tar  as  your  superintendent 

think  of  controlling 
i.     And    if  vigilance   over   the  words   be, 
God  asserts  it   I  riterion  of  vigilai 

e — what  is  the  COncluflion?  What, 
hut  that  yon  are  taking  no  heed  t<>  administer 
yonr  nduct  alter  the  precepts  of  ( 

and  ore,  the   surest    proof  that,  what- 

1  privileges  may  attach  to  your  lot, 
you  have  no  spiritual  life  dwelling  in  \ 

But  now  to  turn   to   the  other  image.      The 

j  ue  is  not  only  th<  hut  the  determining 

I  ument  also  of  our  moral  state.     It  not  only 

its  out,  hut  n  .  —as  the  hit  regulates  the 

hoiv  the  helm  the  ship.    This  positioi 

equally  apparent,  when  we   come  to  examine    it, 

with  the  fori  i 

Tak    .  \ 

man  lias  a  strong  temp  dingly  irritable, 


202  Sermon  at  Rugby  ^ 

and  hard  to  overcome.  If  he  is  a  man  with  no 
self-discipline,  this  temper  bursts  forth  contin- 
ually, and  renders  himself,  and  all  around  him, 
miserable.  He  is  sensible  of  its  mastery,  and,  in 
his  cool  moments,  deplores  it.  Well,  there  is  one 
obvious  rule  of  wisdom  which,  if  he  clings  to  it 
steadfastly,  will,  by  God's  Grace,  enable  him  to 
curb  the  unruly  passion.  He  complains  that  he 
cannot  control  his  feelings, — they  are  like  a  fretful 
steed,  too  much  for  his  rider,  and  they  bear  him 
away  whither  they  list.  Granted  (for  argument's 
sake)  that  he  cannot  control  his  feelings  ; — can  he 
not  control  his  words  ?  Can  he  not,  if  he  pleases, 
refrain  from  speaking  ?  or  if  he  pleases,  utter  a 
conciliatory  expression  %  Let  him  go  into  society, 
after  prayer  for  the  aid  of  God's  Spirit,  with  a  stead- 
fast resolution,  that  come  what  may — slight,  or  ridi- 
cule, or  insult — and  feel  what  he  may, — he,  at  all 
events,  will  not  say  a  single  irritating  or  irritable 
word.  I  will  suppose  him,  by  God's  Grace,  to  keep 
his  resolution.  "What  is  the  result  ?  The  result 
is,  that  the  trial,  if  it  comes  at  all,  does  not 
last  very  long.  If  the  other  party  is  not  really 
bent  on  provocation,  the  whole  feeling  passes  off, 
— perhaps  veers  right  round  in  another  direction 
— as  this  want  of  intention  becomes  apparent. 
And  if  he  is  bent  on  provocation,  he  soon  wearies 
of  it  when  he  is  met  by  soft  words  that  turn  away 


I 

wraf  is  to  rasped  the  principle  which 

he  instil  this 

.  -perhape  he  acknowledging 

tin4  faull  '  which 

an  rnti'  rsion  of  feeling  towaj 

him  in  the  mindofth  raid 

an    I  have   done'        It    would   simply 

fur  irritation  to  both  mi] 

i    pride,      Pride  is  a 
[ling  haughty  who  will  bear  away  tri- 

umphant all  win*  minister  occasion  And 

occasion  will  be  mil  to  it   bj  -by 

talking  too  much  about  Belt'— whether  in  the  way 

of  scli-irrat illation,  or  in  the  way  of  selt'-d 
tion.      I  am  sure  that   language  of  t: 

i  nonrial  I  pride, 

and  if  much  indulged   in,  will   probably  render  it 

id)  by  all   means,  speaking 
humbly  of  yourself  to  any  one  tQ    Him 

whoseeth  in  ason  is  this, — pride 

is  so  inwoven  into  the  very  texture  of  our  nature, 
that  our  ry  rarely  indeed  humble. 

rpres8ioi<. 
Hity  of  j  is  tfu    uk 

species  qf  hypocrisy.     But  humble  words 
only  evil   in  H.     We 

I   kind  o 

ion  that  we  are  humble,- 


204  Sermon  at  Rugby ^ 

come  inwardly  proud  of  our  humility.  The  safest 
rule  (and  that  which  is  most  consistent  with  cour- 
tesy and  good  breeding)  will  be  to  obtrude  self  as 
little  as  possible  on  the  company — to  speak  as 
little  as  possible  about  self,  in  order  that  (oh, 
hard  attainment!)  we  may  think  as  little  as 
possible  about  self.  All  words  of  self-praise,  all 
words  of  self-depreciation,  forbidden — if  this  rule 
be  minded,  it  will  prove  the  restraining  of  many 
a  spark,  which  else  might  fall  upon  and  kindle 
the  explosive  material  of  pride. 

Again  :  as  to  that  desire,  natural  to  every  man, 
of  making  himself  entertaining  and  agreeable  in 
the  society  in  which  he  moves. 

This  desire,  if  not  restrained,  often  leads  us  to 
say  things  which  were  better  unsaid, — to  give 
point  to  some  of  our  conversation  by  a  jest  which 
is  questionable,  or  to  be  bitterly  sarcastic,  or,  at 
least,  to  exaggerate  and  misrepresent  the  truth. 
One  objectionable  remark,  especially  if  successful 
in  exciting  wonder  or  amusement,  is  enough  to 
ensnare  us.  The  strong  desire  then  becomes,  like 
the  horse  whose  rein  is  slackened,  uncontrollable. 
We  must  then  perforce  go  on  in  the  career  on 
which  we  have  entered,  and  trick  out  our  story 
with  embellishments,  without  regard  to  the  feel- 
ings of  our  neighbour,  the  interests  of  truth,  or 
the  Majesty  of  God's  Presence.     Therefore  that 


original  error,— thai    first   remark,  which  m 

had  better  hai 
raBtrain  such  remarki  is  at- 
y  impossible  without  bitting  the  hone,  without 
■liinial  restraint  upon  that  little 
member,  which  boasteth  great  tilings. 

1  ii.  dwell,  beoau  dent, 

upon  the  awful  ascendancy  which  andean  d< 

BT  a  man  who  allows  himself  to   age  im- 

pure  la;  h  b  person  is  indeed;  by  the 

of  telling  forth  the  abominations  which 

I  in  his  I  ding  and  pampering  a  viper, 

the  poison  of  whose  fangs  will  speedily  spread 

itself  to  his  eternal  ruin,  through  his  whole  SOUL 

This  is  a  subject  to  be  meditated  upon  in  sec 

rather  than  to  be  spoken  of  in  public.    Suffice 

it  that  I  have  called  vour  attention  in  that  direction, 
and  warned  those  who  are  willing  to  give  heed. 

It  will  have  occurred,  perhaps,  to  some  of  you, 
that  in  inculcating  so  strict  a  government  of  the 

rue — (and    by    consequence    so    continual    a 
watchfulness  over  it) — we  have  been   b 

igion  with  a  garb  of  gloom  and  austerity,  and 

robbing  it  of  all  mirth  and  tightness  of  hen-!.     I 

mu-  .    without 

quenees,  win  herd  put  nth ; 

bid  that  Iieligion 

all  alien  to  ]  •vmeiit   or  inno- 


206  Sermon  at  Rugby ^ 

cent  mirth.  Wisdom's  ways  are  pleasantness  and 
peace.  And  let  me  say  distinctly,  that  I  am  not 
forbidding  any  words  but  such  as  God's  Law  pro- 
nounces to  be  evil.  Innocent  mirth  and  gaiety, 
laughter  at  that  which  cannot  wound  another 
person,  and  is  not  wrong,  and  is  not  profane — 
so  far  from  being  an  evil,  is  in  a  social  (nay,  in  a 
religious)  point  of  view  a  decided  good.  And  a 
dull  or  moping  spirit  wilfully  cherished,  would  be 
as  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  as  it  is  to 
our  natural  inclinations.  Christ  has  done  all  for 
us,  if  we  be  His  true  followers, — has  relieved  us  of 
the  load  of  guilt,  of  corrupt  inclinations,  of  cark- 
ing  care.  If  the  great  Burden-bearer  bore  those 
burdens  for  us,  why  are  we  to  bear  them  our- 
selves \  Why,  if  I  can  only  realize  these  great 
things, — why  should  not  a  well  of  joy  and  thank- 
fulness spring  up  within  me,  which  shall  make 
the  heart  ever  merry  and  the  countenance  ever 
shining,  and  the  mind  accessible  to  all  possible 
enjoyments  which  are  pure  ? 

Besides,  one  of  the  objects  for  which  the  tongue 
was  given,  is  recreation;  and  this  object  would  be 
frustrated,  and  life  would  not  be  relieved  of  its 
manifold  little  burdens,  if  conversation  were  not 
occasionally    brightened    with    merriment.     We 

HAVE  BEEN  ADVOCATING  CONTINUAL  WATCHFULNESS, 
NOT  CONTINUAL  SERIOUSNESS,  OF  WORDS. 


ally :  eome  wfll  think  that   I   hi 
deili  all  with  .  and  t! 

might  have  been  occupied  better  with  n 
In  that  case  I  must 
t"  my  authorities :— M  It'  any  man  among  you  m 
religious,  and  bridled]  not  hi 

.vn  heart,  this  man's  religion  is  vain.'1 
ee  not  said  any  tning  mow  serious  about  wc 

tlian  St.  James  and   Our   BlOQBOd   Lord  say. 

ticn  of  uo(  dealing  with  small  dut 

-•ally  il!iN»uii(l.      Life  f|   made   np  of 

Jl  duties,  amal]  '1  temp- 

mall  troubles,  small  fragments  of  happi- 
ness.    Jt  :i  much  upon  my  mind  lately,  that 

Bgleot  tin  all  things  is  the  height  of 

folly, — t]  only  through  acquitting  o 

well  on  small  occasions,  that  we  can  mal,- 

in  holiness,  and    discipline  ourselves  for 

with   poverty,  bereavement,  calls  of 

Providence,  arduous  posts  of  responsibility,  and  :dl 

at  occasions  of  life.     The  man  who  v. 
for  a  great  erne:  or  a  line  opportunity, 

v.-  and  ap  m,  is  in  a  fair  wa; .  1 

ok,  never  to  have  any  religj  bid, 

therefore,  it  was  that  last  Sunday  I  warned  yoi 
good  conduct  of  each  d 
I !', — BflBU  I  he  good  conduct 

raid  follow. 


208  Sermon  at  Rugby. 

And,  therefore  it  is,  that  I  now  warn  you  to 
give  heed  to  your  words.  I  tell  you,  on  God's 
Authority,  that  care  over  the  words  is  the  very 
secret  and  key  of  care  over  the  life.  Here  I  rec- 
ommend you  to  bestow  a  great  deal  of  study  and  at- 
tention,— with  the  assurance  that  it  will  not  be 
thrown  away.  And,  above  all,  I  recommend  you 
to  pray,  that  Grod  would  so  fill  your  soul  at  every 
moment  with  the  thought  of  the  Majesty  of  His 
Presence,  as  to  make  the  restraint  of  wrong  words 
an  easy  task  to  you — aye,  and  to  convert  that  re- 
straint into  an  act  of  continual  "Worship. 


THE    END. 


D.  APPLETS 

ill   I. 

NEW  AMERICAN  CYCLOPAEDIA, 

WPLEY  AND  CHAKL 

D.   APPLETON  &  COMPANY,  New  York 
Id  16  Vols.  Svo,  Double  Columns,  750  Pages  each. 

r,  Cloth,  t        Shey,  fMor.,%  Uust., 

per  Volume. 


i:y  ono  tl  OHO  that  mingles  in  soci> 

meeting  with  to  subjects  on  which  ho> 

Other  information.      In  i  -n,  in 

ttOtta]  lite,  on  the  farm,  in 
re  continually  arising  which  no  man,  well  read  or 
not,  can  ah.  rarer.     If  facilities  for  ren 

aro  at  band,  they  are  consulted,  and  not  only  is  the  CUJ 
gratified,  and  the  stock  of  kn  vreascd,  but  perhaps 

information  is  gained  and  ideas  aro  suggested  that  will  <1 
contribute  to  the  business  success  of  the  party  concerned. 
With  a  Cyclopaedia,  embracing  every  conceivablo  sol 
and  having  its  topics  alphabetically  arranged,  not  a  mot! 
matter  in  question  is  found  at  once,  dLr 
!,  stripped  of  all  that  is  irrelevant  and  annee 
verified  by  a  comparison  of  the  best  authori 
while  only  men  of  fortuue  can  collect  a  library  complete  in  all 
the  <!•  <»f  knowledge,  .  worth  in  itself, 

for  purposes  of  r  bonaand  v  \  ithin 

the  reach  of  all — the  clerk,  the  merchant,  the  professional  man, 
the  farmer,  the  mechanic.     In  a  country  like  ours, 
humble-t  may  be   called  to   responsible   position*   requiting 
intelligence  and  general  information,  the  value  of  81 
can  not  be  i  ited. 


2  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

PLAN   OF   THE   CYCLOP/ED1A. 

The  New  American  Cyclopedia  presents  a  panoramic  view 
of  all  human  knowledge,  as  it  exists  at  the  present  moment. 
It  embraces  and  popularizes  every  subject  that  can  be  thought 
of.  In  its  successive  volumes  is  contained  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  accurate  and  practical  information  on  Art  and  Science 
in  all  their  branches,  including  Mechanics,  Mathematics,  As- 
tronomy, Philosophy,  Chemistry,  and  Physiology;  on  Agri- 
culture, Commerce,  and  Manufactures;  on  Law,  Medicine,  and 
Theology ;  on  Biography  and  History,  Geography  and  Ethnol- 
ogy; on  Political  Economy,  the  Trades^  Inventions,  Politics, 
the  Things  of  Common  Life,  and  General  Literature. 

The  Industrial  Arts  and  those  branches  of  Practical  Science 
which  have  a  direct  bearing  on  our  every-day  life,  such  as 
Domestic  Economy,  "Ventilation,  the  Heating  of  Houses,  Diet, 
&c,  are  treated  with  the  thoroughness  which  their  great  im- 
portance demands. 

The  department  of  Biography  is  full  and  complete,  embra- 
cing the  lives  of  all  eminent  persons,  ancient  and  modern.  In 
American  biography,  particularly,  great  pains  have  been  taken 
to  present  the  most  comprehensive  and  accurate  record  that 
has  yet  been  attempted. 

In  History,  the  New  American  Cyclopedia  gives  no  mere 
catalogue  of  barren  dates,  but  a  copious  and  spirited  narrative, 
under  their  appropriate  heads,  of  the  principal  events  in  the 
annals  of  the  world.  So  in  Geography,  it  not  only  serves  as  a 
general  Gazetteer,  but  it  gives  interesting  descriptions  of  the 
principal  localities  mentioned,  derived  from  books  of  travel 
and  other  fresh  and  authentic  sources. 

As  far  as  is  consistent  with  thoroughness  of  research  and 
exactness  of  statement,  the  popular  method  has  been  pursued. 
The  wants  of  the  people  in  a  work  of  this  kind  have  been  care- 
fully kept  in  view  throughout. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that,  throughout  the  whole, 
perfect  fairness  to  all  sections  of  country,  local  institutions,  public 
men,  political  creeds,  and  religious  denominations,  has  been  a 
sacred  principle  and  leading  aim.  Nothing  that  can  be  con- 
strued into  an  invidious  or  offensive  allusion  has  been  admitted. 


0P2SDIA. 


DISTINGUISHING   EXCELLENCES. 

f,  and 

which  wo 

prkk  in  crican 

!.   !  !XE8fl   of  Information.— Tho 

I  of  this  ki;  I  to  its  cor* 

>.     It  moat  ; 

ultimatum 
nothing. 

II.  In  I  .oik  041  r:  i  xam- 

I  stood  tl 
nounced  by  and  Icadin 

wring  all  ei 
aions  of  opinion  on  controverted  points  of  science.  phUoi 

:i,  and  polities,  it  aims  at  an  accurate  r<  Lion  of 

facts  and  institutions,  of  the  remits  of  pi. 
prominent  -  the  world,  of  the  most  sig- 

tionfl  of  literati;: 
individual-  1   with  the 

conspicuous  phenomena  of  their  age — doing  justice  to  :.]. 
all  creeds,  all  sections. 

III.  Ix  <  -It  treats  of  every  suhjec. 

and  condc:  .  but  full}-  and  exhaustively.    It  Lb  believed 

that  but  fa  D  be  found  ;  but  wha I  -  may, 

through  a::; 

IV.  In  Amki:h  an  Cm.'.  <lia  is 
intend                  I  the  intellectual  wants  of  the  American  ; 

•  .  .:  tropesaworkj  of  a 

all  their  l 
to  thorn  a  peculiar  and  unmistakab!  note.     It 

is  the  production  mainly  of  American  mind. 

V.  '  i'liic:l1  ft1>' 
ion  and  specm:.1 

actio:..  the  universal  to-  ■'.;*,  wo 

have  made  our  (  ■»  °f 

.•iuibleorcxalted.can  afford  to  do  without  it 


4  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

VI.  In  Inteeest  of  Style. — The  cold,  formal,  and  re* 
pulsive  style  usual  in  works  of  this  kind,  has  been  replaced  with 
a  style  sparkling  and  emphatically  readable.  It  has  been  the 
aim  to  interest  and  please,  as  well  as  instruct.  Many  of  our 
writers  are  men  who  hold  the  foremost  rank  in  general  litera- 
ture, aud  their  articles  have  been  characterized  by  our  best 
critics  as  models  of  elegance,  force,  and  beauty. 

VII.  In  Convenience  op  Fokm. — No  ponderous  quartos, 
crowded  with  fine  type  that  strains  the  eyes  and  wearies  the 
brain,  are  here  presented.  The  volumes  are  just  the  right  size 
to  handle  conveniently ;  the  paper  is  thick  and  white,  the  type 
large,  the  binding  elegant  and  durable. 

VIII.  In  Cheapness. — Our  Cyclopaedia  has  been  univer- 
sally pronounced  a  miracle  of  cheapness.  We  determined,  at 
the  outset,  to  enlarge  its  sphere  of  usefulness,  and  make  it 
emphatically  a  book  for  the  people,  by  putting  it  at  the  lowest 
possible  price. 

Such  being  the  character  of  the  New  American  Cyclopaedia, 
an  accurate,  fresh,  impartial,  complete,  practical,  interesting, 
convenient,  cheap  Dictionary  of  General  Knowledge,  we  ask, 
who  can  afford  to  do  without  it?  Can  the  merchant,  the 
statesman r  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  clergyman,  to  whom 
it  gives  thorough  and  complete  information  on  every  point 
connected  with  their  several  callings?  Can  the  teacher,  who 
is  enabled,  by  the  outside  information  it  affords,  to  make  his 
instructions  doubly  interesting  and  profitable?  Can  the  far- 
mer, to  whom  it  offers  the  latest  results  of  agricultural  research 
and  experiment?  Can  the  young  man,  to  whom  it  affords  the 
means  of  storing  his  mind  with  useful  knowledge  bearing  no 
any  vocation  he  may  have  selected?  Can  the  intelligent 
mechanic,  who  wishes  to  understand  what  he  reads  in  his  daily 
paper?  Can  the  mother  of  a  family,  whom  it  initiates  into  the 
mysteries  of  domestic  economy,  and  teaches  a  thousand  things 
which  more  than  saves  its  cost  in  a  single  year  ?  In  a  word,  can 
any  intelligent  American,  who  desires  to  understand  the  insti- 
tutions of  his  country,  its  past  history  and  present  condition, 
and  his  own  duties  as  a  citizen,  deny  himself  this  great  Ameri- 
can digest  of  all  human  knowledge,  universally  pronounced  the 
best  Cyclopajdia  and  the  most  valuable  work  ever  published! 


Tin: 


CONTRIBUTORS   TO   THE  CYCLOP/EDIA. 
Tlu  Eurta  of  the  oom 

ics  of  sev. 

form 

:'..    l'-Al-.TLtl  I,   i.lt''   I .  >.  ■■■ 

.  v..  I. 
Bar.  l!  Fork. 

I'.  S.  Attorney  (lonenil.  WashlBftOB,  I>.  0, 

■ 
■  <>rk. 
^.\p.;i,  M.D.,  London. 

un  D.  imna.  1.1.  D..  Tali  Co 

rjB.  Davies,  l.L.  l»..  Portland,  Mo. 
■  rd.  Mass. 
.  Mass. 
D ..  Sarrazd  Uahn  •  -ass. 

I>.  W.  1  liy  of  tbo  Geographical  and  Statistical  Soci.  : 

Charles  L.  Flist,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Beard  of  Agriculture, 
Boston,  Mass. 

1).,  College  of  Thysicians  and  Surgeons,  New 

HUH  Qoadby,  M.D.,  Stato  Agricultural  Coflflg  ft,  Ann 

Arbor,  Mich. 
Horace  Of.eei.ky.  I  <>rk. 

l:.  A    I  Librarian  of  Brow,  i:    I. 

rk. 
Tames  Hall,  Cincinnati.  Ohio. 
;>  Hallock.  of  tbo  "Journal  of  < 

\    W.  Harkness,  Brown  ILL 

York. 
Onaaxa  OL  H.vzr.-.*  ston,  Mass. 

n  Hildeeth,  Esq.,  author  of  "History  of  t! 

Ohio. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CCVS  PUBLICATIONS. 


CONTRIBUTORS    TO    THE    CYCLOP/EDIA. 

J.  S.  IIittell,  Esq.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

James  T.  Hodge,  Esq.,  Cooper  Institute,  New  York. 

Prof.  L.  M.  HtfBBAED,  D.D.,  University  of  N.  C,  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

Lev.  Henry  N.  Hudson,  author  of  "  Lectures  on  Shakespeare,"  &c,  Litch* 

field,  Conn.  \ 

Prof.  S.  W.  Johnson,  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Conn. 
J.  C.  G.  Kennedy,  Esq.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Hon.  John  B.  Kerr,  late  U.  S.  Minister  to  Central  America,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Eev.  T.  Starr  King,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Charles  Lanman,  Esq.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Charles  G.  Leland,  Esq.,  Philadelphia,  Fa. 
Prof.  James  E.  Lowell,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
E.  Shelton  Mackenzie,  D.C.L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Eev.  II.  N.  McTyeire,  D.D.,  editor  "  Christian  Advocate,'11  Nashville,  Tenn. 
Charles  Nordhoff,  Esq.,  author  of  "Stories  of  the  Island  World,"  &c,  New 

York. 
Eev.  Samuel  Osgood,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Prof.  TnEOPHiLUS  Parsons,  LL.D.,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Prof.  E.  E.  Peasler,  M.D.,  New  York  Medical  College,  New  York. 
John  L.'  Peyton,  Esq.,  Staunton,  Ya. 

William  C.  Prime,  author  of  "  Boat  Life  and  Tent  Life,"  &c,  New  York. 
J.  II.  Eaymond,  LL.D.,  Principal  of  the  Polytechnic  Institute,  Brooklyn,  New 

York. 
George  Schedel,  Esq.,  late  British   Consular  Agent  for  Costa  Eica,  Staten 

Island,  N.  Y. 
Prof.  Alexander  G.  Schem,  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  Penn. 
Hon.  Francis  Schroeder,  Jr.,  late  U.  S.  Minister  to  Sweden,  Paris. 
Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  U.  S.  Senator  from  New  York,  Auburn,  N.  Y. 
William  Gilmore  Simms,  LL.D.,  Charleston,  S.  C. 
Prof.  Henry  B.  Smith,  D.D.,  Union  Theological  Seminarv,  New  York. 
Eev.  J.  A.  Spencer,  D.D.,  author  of  "  The  History  of  the  United  States,"  &c, 

New  York. 
Eev.  William  B.  Sprague,  D.D.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Hon.  E  G.  Squier,  author  of  "  The  States  of  Central  America,"  "  Nicaragua," 

&c. 
Alex.  W.  Thayer,  Esq.,  Berlin,  Prussia. 
John  E.  Thompson,  Esq.,  editor  "  Southern  Literary  Messenger,"  Eichmond, 

Ya. 
George  Ticknor,  LL.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Osmond  Tiffany,  Esq.,  Springfield,  Mass. 

E.  T.  Trall,  M.D.,  author  of  "  Hydropathic  Encyclopaedia,"  New  York. 
Baron  De  Trobriand,  New  York. 

W.  P.  Trowbridge,  Esq.,  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Henry  T.  Tuckerman,  Esq.,  New  York. 

Alexander  Walker,  Esq.,  editor  of  the  "Delta,"  New  Orleans. 
Charles  S.  Weyman,  Esq.,  New  York. 

Eev.  W.  D.  Wilson,  D.D.,  Hobart  Free  College,  Geneva,  N.  Y. 
E.  L.  Youmans,  Esq.,  author  of  "  The  Hand-Book  of  Household  Science,* 

New  York. 


OPIMOXS  OF  S  AM)   MSTIVaiSHKl)  UK\. 

I 

I  .  I 

Journals,  and  U-  log  tor  the 

part  on  special  features  of  tlio  \. 

rk  itself  no  longer  needs  commendation  at  our  hands,  or  at  any  hands.    It 
has  long  since  established  its  worth;  find,  if  there  bo  in  it  any  considerable 
b  search  will  btTfequired  to  find  it— Sorth  A  Uidel- 

phia, 

it  arts  of  condensat:  preoption,  and  Striking  exposition  of  tho 

essential  parts  of  their  rabjeet  have  been  folly  attained;  and  will  g| 
reader  a  library  of  universal  knowledgo  in  a  convenient  compass,  arrat' 
ready  use,  and  attn  in  tho  concise  and  p 

prcprlate  to  such  a  work.— Letter  from  Uu  late  J. 

This  work,  instead  of  Qtlag  a  DMN  dictionary— a  stupid  epitome  of  dry  f 

dates— is  made  up  of  attractivo  and  readable  matter;  scholarly  and  f-parkling 
essays ;  fresh  biographies  of  li \ 

discoveries  and  inventions ;  and  Infbfl  ject  that  has  attract- 

ed the  attention  of  man  up  to  tho  present  period.— Examiner,  Poitghl. 
X.   V. 

I  feel  quite  sure  that  it  will  ho  marked  by  distinguished   ability,  and  that,  when 

ladad,  it  will  be  a  vast  storehouse  of  late  and  wry  Important  information 

—such  a  work  as  almost  every  intelligent  person  will  be  glad  to  have  always 

near  him  for  reference.     I  ran  only  ej  undcr- 

and  crowned  with  ultin:  . 
from  the  lit.  Rev.  IIobatio  Potter,  (ProL  Bpis.)  Bishop  of  :. 

Tho  editors  have  done  their  duty  with  justice,  fairness,  and  llberalitv. 
no  instance  of  partisanship  or  partiality,  and,  as  yet,  no  proofs  of  that 
sectionallty  of  which  wo  have  hitherto  had  reason,  In  all  such  pa 
complain.— Mercury,  Cliarle&ton,  & 

i.o  best  and  most  comprol  panfia  that  ha<*  J*  been  la. 

sued  from  the  press  of  this  or  any  other  country. 
When  completed,  this  Cyclopaedia  will  be  then;  ibrary  of  kr 

r>e  space  since  the 

printing  wa-  ,  ,.v,%   \-    y 

Its  freshness  sdvantoce  over  any 

other  Cyclopaedia  of  its  class  hitherto  issued  mtlc  — 

Daily  71  i 

It  is  a  perfect  treasury  of  knowledge.     In  all  branches  ef  (hi  i 

literature,  history,  biography,  I 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PEES3. 

The  scientific  articles  are  evidently  the  productions  of  learned  and  accomplished 
men.  Many  of  the  papers  deserve  especial  commendation,  as  presenting  the 
latest  developments  in  their  various  departments  of  research.— National  In- 
telligencer, Washington,  D.  C. 

Our  own  country  has  never  before  been  so  fairly  or  fully  represented  in  any  Cy- 
clopaedia. America,  her  resources,  her  literature,  her  politic?,  and  her  repre- 
sentative men  receive  in  this  work,  at  least,  their  full  share  of  attention.— 
Post,  Boston,  Mass. 

To  enumerate  one  half  of  its  excellences  would  require  far  more  space  than  news- 
paper columns  afford.  To  the  professional  man  and  the  laborer,  the  citizen 
and  the  farmer,  it  is  invaluable  as  an  epitome  of  all  useful  knowledge. — Lead- 
er, Cleveland,  O. 

There  is  no  conceivable  topic  which  is  not  here  discussed  as  fully  as  most  persons 
would  care  to  find  it.— American  Agriculturist. 

It  should  be  in  every  family,  for  in  no  other  shape  can  so  much  useful  information 
be  obtained  as  cheaply.  As  a  book  of  reference,  it  is  invaluable. — Indiana 
Sentinel. 

It  is,  without  doubt,  the  most  complete  work  of  the  kind  ever  published.  To 
prepare  it,  the  publishers  have  called  into  requisition  the  talent  of  some  of  the 
best  men  our  country  affords.— Pennsylvanian,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  at  least  for  the  use  of  American  readers,  and  in  some 
respects  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  the  Cyclopaedia  will 
greatly  8UKPASS,  in  its  value  as  a  reference  book,  any  similar  compilation 
that  has  yet  been  issued  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic— North  American 
Review. 

Take  it  all  in  all— for  the  strict  purposes  of  an  Encyclopaedia;  for  a  clear  survey  of 
all  the  departments  of  human  knowledge;  for  embracing  every  important 
topic  in  this  vast  range;  for  lucid  and  orderly  treatment;  for  statements  con- 
densed yet  clear ;  for  its  portable  size— not  being  too  large  or  too  small ;  for 
convenience  of  reference,  and  for  practical  utility,  especially  to  American 
readers;  it  is  incomparably  the  best  work  in  Vie  English  language.— K 
Y.  Evangelist. 

It  is  a  most  extraordinary  effort  of  genial  scholarship  and  of  multum  inparvo 
erudition.  We  commend  it  as  a  book  which  the  world  has  long  wanted,  and 
which  will  exert  an  incalculable  influence  in  Europe  as  regards  creating  re- 
spect for  solid  American  learning.- Telegrap7i,  Uarnsburgh,  Pa. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  almost  every  man  of  note  who  ever  lived  and  died,  of 
whom  there  is  record,  has  in  it  a  place;  every  country,  provmce,  race,  and 
tribe ;  every  sea,  river,  lake  and  island ;  every  science,  religion,  and,  in  short, 
almost  every  noun  in  the  language,  is  descriptively  illustrated  in  the  most 
complete  shape  in  which  the  information  could  be  condensed.— Blade,  Tole- 
do, 0. 

The  various  subjects  are  not  treated  accordins  to  the  mere  routine  of  technical 
details,  or  in  the  settled  formularies  of  professional  science,  but,  while  the  in- 
formation is  full,  thorough,  and  accurate,  it  is  given  in  a  genial  and  attractive 
etyle.— Tribune,  Mobile,  Ala. 


thi 


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WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
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'D  LD 
FEB  IS  1941 


LD  21-50m-l,'3 


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YB  29459 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


